ST. THOMAS, US Virgin Islands--US Virgin Islands (USVI) Governor Kenneth Mapp met with US Vice President (VP) Mike Pence at the White House on Monday to discuss the status of and to report on the territory’s preparations for the current hurricane season.
Mapp thanked the vice president and the Trump administration for its support in helping the US Virgin Islands recover from the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The governor also requested White House support in addressing the bureaucratic hurdles the territory has faced in order to accelerate the recovery process.
Mapp discussed with the vice president ways in which the administration could facilitate a faster and stronger recovery in the territory. He raised the need to waive certain rules on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Sheltering and Temporary Emergency Power (STEP) programme and allow FEMA to fund permanent roofing on approximately 4,000 storm-damaged homes in the territory.
With significant damage to schools and other traditional hurricane shelters, as well as thousands of homes in need of repair, the governor urged the vice president to allow the use of FEMA funding to replace blue tarps and install permanent roofs to building code standards over the next few months. The permanent roof programme is estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars per home, with the total project cost estimated to exceed US $250 million.
“Permanent roofs are clearly the best solution,” Mapp said. “We simply do not have time to rebuild our public shelters. If the alternatives are using cruise ships and airplanes for mass evacuations every time a storm approaches or leaving Virgin Islanders exposed to extreme danger, constructing new roofs built to withstand the harsh winds and excessive rain is really the only solution.”
Mapp and Pence also discussed the allocation of $2 billion that Congress set aside for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act for rebuilding the power systems in these areas.
“[The US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s – Ed.] HUD’s usual formulas for splitting the funds are not appropriate,” Mapp said. “Congress specifically recognised the Virgin Islands in the Budget Act, calling upon us for this special funding, so we believe that our share should be substantial.”
In addition, Mapp raised concerns over some of the unnecessary obstacles that the Treasury Department had imposed on the administration of the Community Disaster Loan (CDL) programme, which provides federal funds to cover disaster-related revenue losses and projected cash outlays not previously budgeted. While the Treasury has approved over $200 million in CDL loans thus far, the territory still awaits official guidance from FEMA surrounding the types of expenditures that are considered “projected cash outlays not previously budgeted,” for which additional CDLs could be issued.
The governor highlighted Phase III of the Limetree Bay operation, with respect to providing liquefied natural gas to the eastern Caribbean. Pence recognised the importance of the project to national security and committed to arranging a follow-up meeting between the governor and US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to facilitate the project.
Early Monday, Mapp sent a letter to US President Donald Trump requesting his support for expedited federal permitting review for the dredging of Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas and Schooner Bay on St. Croix. HUD Secretary Ben Carson has already approved $23 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-disaster recovery funds for the two dredging projects and approval of another $7 million is expected later this month. ~ Caribbean News Now! ~
