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Now, last but certainly not least,
is Jennifer Santos-Hernandez.

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Jennifer has had a little bit of a –
a bit of drama going on in the –

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behind the scenes.
She’s had her power cut, and then

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it’s come back on again now.
I think, Jennifer, are you –

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are you fully online now again?
- Absolutely. [laughs]

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- Great. So I will just …
- [inaudible]

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- I will just briefly introduce Jennifer.
Jennifer is a research professor

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in sociology in disasters at the
Centro de Investigaciones Sociales.

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I hope I did that okay, Jennifer.
- [inaudible]

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- For the Center for Social Research at
University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras.

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Was that okay?

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[laughs]
Yeah, thank you. [laughs]

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So, Jennifer has – so that center
was established in 1945.

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It is the oldest social science
research center in Puerto Rico.

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Jennifer is also an alumna of the
Disaster Research Center at the

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University of Delaware,
where she completed her master’s

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and Ph.D. in sociology.
She has – she’s on many committees.

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She’s working incredibly
hard right now.

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Just a quick note with Jennifer.
When I was deployed to Puerto Rico,

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I knew I didn’t understand the cultural
context and I needed to phone a friend,

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and that friend was Jennifer.
And Jennifer spent many hours

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with me at the FEMA emergency
operations center working through

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tricky communication issues
and helping me and the rest of

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the team really understand
what needed to be done.

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In fact, she named the southwestern
Puerto Rico sequence.

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We have much to thank Jennifer for.
And just one final note.

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As a social scientist, even before
I met Jennifer, Jennifer is the

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kind of researcher that gets
disaster social scientists excited.

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When we see an article coming out
from Jennifer, we know it’s going to

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be amazing and great work. She is
one of the thought leaders in my field.

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So it is such an honor to
be able to have her here today.

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Thank you
so much, Jennifer.

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- Thanks to you, Sara. I very much
appreciate your introduction.

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So a bit of pretty much how I engaged
with Sara and the rest of the team

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and pretty much what I was doing
when the earthquake happened.

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As Sara said, I’m a disaster researcher.
I work at Centro de Investigaciones

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Sociales at UPR-Río Piedras.
And there I pretty much – what I do,

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it’s all research and just generating
training opportunities for

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undergraduates and for graduate
students in social sciences.

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So, when the 2020 earthquake
happened, we have to also think about

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the larger context of Puerto Rico
and what has been going on

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over the last 15 years, pretty much.
So, when we talk about risk

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communication, and we look at the
risk communication literature and

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the different models that are available,
one of the things that comes across

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is the complexity of looking at risk
communication in Puerto Rico and

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how people make actions in terms of
how to protect themselves,

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their property, and others.
There are other broader challenges

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that we have to understand.
Puerto Rico has been in an economic

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crisis pretty much since 2006.
There are historical issues of

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unemployment and underemployment
that have – that have become paramount

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in the last few years when pretty much,
ever since we began with the last streak

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of hazards that we’ve been
dealing in 2017, right before that,

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the discussion was pretty much
about the elimination of public services

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and the reduction of work
hours for public employees.

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There was – we’ve been dealing
with over a decade of a very strong

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population loss, which has
exacerbated the issue of aging.

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We have an aging population,
but as we lose more people in their

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productive years, that issue
becomes more important.

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And we’re particularly talking about
not just an issue of age, but an issue

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of access and an issue of isolation
that becomes very much a challenge

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in the aftermath of disasters.
We’re also talking about

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a context of circular migration.
One of the things that we observed

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when we were doing quick-response
research after the earthquakes was that

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several people who we talked to at
the shelters had just returned to the

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island after pretty much moving to
the mainland to work, make money,

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to rebuild their homes.
Some of them had the homes that they

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were building at the time also destroyed.
We’re also talking about critical

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infrastructure in the context of
communities that is also disappearing.

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And that’s particularly related
to the closure of schools.

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That process was not necessarily
managed taking into consideration

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issues of social vulnerability,
issues of poverty, issues of children

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living with grandparents.
So many of the schools that are closing

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were also the only government
service, or the only government public

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infrastructure, that was available
in many of these communities.

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There’s also the other issue of schools
that were certified as shelters destroyed.

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That’s precisely the case of Indios
in Guayanilla, which is one of the

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communities in which we’re working
right now, the school is closed,

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but it was also their shelter,
and it was destroyed by the earthquakes.

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So there’s challenges also
in terms of access to education.

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In terms of broader public health
situations, we’ve lost a number of

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health professionals because of the
economic crisis, and although there

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have been incentives to try to retain
some of those professionals, access

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to specialists in Puerto Rico can be
very limited and very cumbersome.

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There’s also the broader political
context of Puerto Rico and of instability.

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There’s dissatisfaction with the
performance of the government

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at different levels and how
they respond to emergencies.

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We’re right now doing – collecting data
as part of a survey, and the performance

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of the emergency management agency
is rated at 2.3, and that has been very

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consistent since – there’s many
patterns that are changing in the –

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in the database as we obviously
add cases, but that is something that,

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from the beginning,
seems to be very consistent.

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So, when the hurricane –
when the earthquakes happened,

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I was engaged in a – in a broader
effort of putting together long-term

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sustainability transition
scenarios in San Juan.

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And that was one of the things that
was disrupted by the earthquakes.

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As we were pretty much having those
discussions is when the aftershock

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forecast came up, and all this
information about the possibility

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of a larger earthquake was very
much a concern for residents.

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It became very evident that there
were spatial issues with how people

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were interpreting the information
that was available and how they were

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personalizing the risk that the
possibility of a larger earthquake

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posed to themselves.
And one of the things that we were

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doing at the time was facilitating
meetings in La Perla, which is

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a community in San Juan. And, 
when we get there for one of the

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meetings, they asked us what
we were going to talk about,

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and we pretty much – you know,
we were going to discuss the

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sustainability transition scenarios.
And residents pretty much asked us

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to shift the topic of the conversation for
that night to talk about the earthquakes.

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Because they were concerned about
pretty much the construction of their

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homes and the risk that a bigger
earthquake would represent for them.

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So we pulled out the visualization
that was – had been – that had just

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been published to discuss
the aftershock forecast.

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And it became very evident that people
didn’t really understand the risk,

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the spatial specificity of the forecast,
and what it meant for them.

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There’s also the challenge that
COVID has presented to Puerto Rico

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and obviously to the rest of the world,
but that it has also made evident

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the issue with risk communication.
In terms of COVID, the main –

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one of the main challenges is
confirming the risk of transmission

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because one of the things that happens
is that, for example, throughout the

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pandemic, we see press conferences
where we are told that we have to

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maintain physical distance, wear a
mask, wash our hands, stay at home.

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But then there’s these public gatherings
that are very large and obviously

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contradict the message
that is being informed.

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So, in that context, it became very
evident that we really needed to

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think about risk communication
and about how we were going to

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do this in the context of an economic
crisis, an economic restructuration,

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consecutive hazards,
and different hazards.

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So it’s a challenge with how disasters
are conceptualized. As the literature

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pretty much points out, disaster
research has often focused on events,

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ignoring the temporal dimension.
And that has led to pretty much

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undermining the experience of people.
And there’s, you know, another

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discussion that we could have
in terms of how we define disaster and

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who gets to define what is a disaster.
But what we’re seeing pretty much is

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a scenario where people are entangled
in multiple stages of the disaster cycle.

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So we really have to think about how
we conceptualize these events and the

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challenges that climate change
and increasing the frequency

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and intensity of hazards pose.
There’s also the broader issue

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with restoration, reconstruction,
and recovery and how we define

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and operationalize these terms.
Recovery – it takes a very prolonged

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period of time, really talking about
a decade, but we are in a context

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in which these hazards are pretty
much coming in, or emerging,

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more frequently.
So we have to think about

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how we can provide emergency
services in a more expedited way.

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And also how they can be more
effective in addressing the needs

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of residents. One of the things that
we’ve been finding in areas that have

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been severely affected by the recent
events is that, for example, 70% of the

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residents apply for disaster assistance,
and 30% of them receive assistance.

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So we really have to think
about what’s going on there

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and how damage
is being assessed.

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And there’s also, lastly, the issue of
listening throughout these processes.

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And it was something that pretty
much was happening in my project.

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We were doing sustainability transition
scenarios, but we were only engaging

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practitioners or representatives
from NGOs.

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We didn’t really have
participation from residents.

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And that really changed how risk is
shaped, how sustainability is defined,

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how transitions are tailored, and
who they favor and who they serve.

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So those are things that we’ve been
pretty much thinking through,

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and as part of that dilemma,
we decided to pretty much

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put together a project that has
allowed me to collaborate with

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a few of the folks that are here today.
So that’s awesome to share a panel

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with Sara, with Nnenia Campbell
from the Natural Hazards Center,

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which is also a colleague with which
I have collaborated for many years.

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And it’s an honor to have the
opportunity to collaborate

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with her on this project.
And with Lorna.

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We began putting together this project
around March of last year, and we

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were pretty much trying to find
a place to submit that proposal.

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We had a few hurdles,
pandemic-related, along the way,

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but we finally got the funding to
launch this project last semester.

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And we began collecting data
pretty much, like, two weeks ago.

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So it’s a project in which we’re doing
in-depth interviews with responders to

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understand risk information sources,
how they make decisions, how they

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navigate this context of multiple
disasters, their perception of what

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people are doing, how the process
of promoting hazard adjustments

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could be enhanced.
We’re also doing door-to-door

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surveys in three communities –
in La Perla in San Juan because

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they were one of the communities
that wrote a support letter

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for this proposal for us.
Indios in Guayanilla, which is

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the closest community to the
epicenter of the – of the southwest

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Puerto Rico earthquake.
And with La Luna, which is also

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in Barrio María Antonia in Guanica,
which is one of the areas that was

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more affected in terms of
housing damage.

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So that’s pretty much where we are.
We have – we are pretty much in

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the process of data collection.
And what we seek to do with this

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project is to collaborate with different
users and with residents to co-produce

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visualizations and risk communication
products that allow us to convey

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multiple risks and possible adjustments.
One of the things that we are seeing

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is that there seems to be a concern
among government actors when

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they talk about the
possibility of an earthquake.

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Their concern, for example,
with population loss and the fact

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that the municipalities around
the epicenter of the earthquake

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have lost a lot of population.
So they don’t want to scare people.

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And, at the same time, there seems to
be a disconnection between the science

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and those actors that produce the
science and that pretty much can talk

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about the hazard and those that can
produce recommendations in terms of

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adjustments and what people can do.
And, as we know from the literature,

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it’s not just a matter of knowing the
risk that people are facing but also of

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providing them with actions that
they can adopt so they – that they feel

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that they can do something about it.
So that’s pretty much where I am.

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Thank you very much
for the invitation,

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and I am open to discussions
now – to questions now.