NIST HURRICANE MARIA STUDY,
HURRICANE MARIA RECOVERY OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT:
INFRASTRUCTURE
INTERDEPENDENCY INSTRUMENT:
INTERVIEW GUIDE COMPONENT 5:
MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION
OMB Control #0693-0078
Expiration Date: 07/31/2025
[PENDING OMB APPROVAL]
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0693-0078. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information collection. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the National Institute of Standards and Technology at: 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, Attn: Dr. Maria Dillard, Associate Team Lead for the NIST Hurricane Maria Program, NIST Engineering Laboratory; or contact at [email protected].
Introduction
In this interview, we want your insights into how a municipal transportation system recovers from a major hurricane. We are especially interested in understanding how disruptions in other infrastructure systems, such as power and water, impact its recovery. We are conducting similar interviews with PREPA/LUMA and PRASA to learn the same for power and water systems.
We are specifically interested in the recovery of municipal transportation systems from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which made landfall in September 2017.
We are going to ask you about the time before and the time after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. We recognize that the two events occurred within two weeks of one another and that it may be difficult to remember back that far or to separate the effects of the two storms from one another.
Please answer to the best of your ability.
We use some terms in this survey to keep the questions consistent across interviews with all infrastructure types. We refer, for example, to “your organization.” We recognize that you may more naturally refer to your “department”, “office”, “agency,” “company,” or “utility.” But for uniformity in conducting interviews for all infrastructure types, we use the generic term “organization”.
Section A. Confirm screening
Can you confirm the type of organization on behalf of which you are providing answers:
Municipal Transportation Department
Other:__________________
Can you confirm the municipio on behalf of which you are providing answers:
Adjuntas
Aguas Buenas
Aibonito
Bayamón
Caguas
Carolina
Catano
Ciales
Cidra
Guaynabo
Gurabo
Humacao
Jayuya
Juncos
Lares
Las Piedras
Maunabo
Mayagüez
Naguabo
Ponce
San Juan
San Lorenzo
Toa Baja
Trujillo Alto
Utaudo
Yabucoa
Other: _______________
Note: removed paragraph
We will refer to “your system.” By “your system”, we mean the physical assets, systems, and networks, such as roads, bridges, ramps, traffic signals, administrative buildings, etc., that your municipality manages.
Section B. Introductory questions
The first set of questions asks about your system.
Does your system serve any major critical
buildings? The building type “critical buildings”
includes but is not limited to hospitals, fire stations, police
stations, emergency operations centers, and public buildings used as
shelters, such as schools.
[Open-ended]
Does your system serve any major commercial
buildings? The building type “commercial buildings”
includes but is not limited to buildings in financial and business
centers/districts, and manufacturing plants.
[Open-ended]
How many vehicle-miles-traveled on your
municipal roads? Or any other related metrics?
[Open-ended]
Which municipally-managed roads or junctions
are critical to the functioning of your system?
[Open-ended]
Next, we ask questions about your professional involvement in the transportation industry.
How many years in the transportation industry have you worked? (years) ____
How many years have you worked in your current organization (in any position)? (years)_____
Please state your job title and give a brief description of your job.
[Open-ended]
Section C. Service assessment
In what follows, we will ask questions about the transportation system provided by your organization in various periods of time before and after Hurricane Maria.
[Interviewer: Show (or have them retrieve) Table A]
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Table A. Extent to which your organization provides/provided a specific attribute of service to different types of buildings
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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---
We want to make sure you become familiar with Table A since we will use this table more than once. In what follows, we are going to ask you the extent to which your organization provided specific attributes of transportation service to different building types. You’ll be asked to select an extent ranging from “Completely” to “Not at all”. You’ll be asked to do this for “All buildings”, “Critical buildings”, “Commercial buildings”, and “Residential buildings”. Table A should be used to help you to answer the questions.
You will reference Table A more than once because we ask about different attributes of transportation service and we ask about different periods of time.
Condition before hurricanes
Before the two hurricanes made landfall, your organization supplied the demanded amount of transportation service for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Before the two hurricanes made landfall, your organization provided a safe transportation system for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Before the two hurricanes made landfall, your organization provided a transportation system available at all times of the day for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Condition one week after Hurricane Maria
We now ask the same questions but now ask about the time one week after Hurricane Maria landfall.
One week after Hurricane Maria’s landfall, your organization supplied the demanded amount of transportation service for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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One week after Hurricane Maria’s landfall, your organization provided a safe transportation system for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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One week after Hurricane Maria’s landfall, your organization provided a safe transportation system for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Time to return to pre-hurricane level of service after Hurricane Maria
Now we ask how long it took for your organization to return to resume service.
[Interviewer: Show (or have them retrieve) Table B]
------------
Table B. Time to return to pre-Hurricane Maria level of service
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Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
Not yet returned |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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We are going to ask you how long it took your organization to resume service to the levels they were before Hurricane Maria. You’ll be asked to select from different periods of time, ranging from “Within a month” to “4-7 years”; “Not yet returned” is also an option. You’ll be asked to do this for each building type. Table B should be used to help you to answer the questions.
You will reference Table B more than once because we ask about the same attributes of transportation service as we did in the earlier set of questions.
Following Hurricane Maria’s landfall, how long did it take before your organization supplied the demanded amount of transportation service at the pre-Hurricane Maria level for travel to and from ...
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Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
Not yet returned |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Following Hurricane Maria’s landfall, how long did it take before your organization provided a safe transportation system at the pre-Hurricane Maria level for travel to and from...
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Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
Not yet returned |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Following Hurricane Maria’s landfall, how long did it take before your organization provided a transportation system available at all times of the day at the pre-Hurricane Maria level for travel to and from...
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Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
Not yet returned |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Section D. Dependencies on other systems—Effect of disruptions on service recovery
In this next set of questions, we ask you to identify disruptions that had an impact on your organization’s recovery of service, either by delaying specific steps of recovery, making recovery items proceed slower than they otherwise would (“throwing sand in the gears”), presenting obstacles that had to be overcome or gotten around, or in any other way frustrating efforts to recover service. We ask all infrastructure service providers about the extent of impact to service recovery of disruptions in goods and services in six categories: communications, transportation, water, energy, economy, and government. We take them up one category at a time.
[Interviewer: Show (or have them retrieve) Table C]
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Table C. To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
Not applicable (NA) |
Don’t know (DK) |
Item 1 |
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Item 2 |
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In answering, please consider...
Impact on recovery of service to pre-Hurricane Maria levels
the entire period of service recovery, from just before landfall through repairs (temporary or permanent) necessary to recover service
only direct impacts on service recovery
-----
We’ll ask you to indicate the extent to which disruptions in each of a set of items impacted service recovery, with responses ranging from “Not at all” to “To a great extent.”
In answering, please consider the period from the leadup to landfall, landfall, damage assessment, through to completion of the repairs necessary to recover to pre-Hurricane levels all service attributes, including: supplying the demanded amount of transportation service, providing a safe transportation system, and providing a transportation system available at all times of the day.
Further, we ask that you consider only direct impacts. To illustrate what we mean by direct, consider the following example. Suppose that outages of traffic signals impacted your organization’s recovery of service. Even though you may know this resulted from a power outage, in this example, the transportation system directly impacts recovery of service (the power system only indirectly).
Communications
First, we will consider the impact of disruptions in Communications.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
Wired phone service |
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Wired internet service |
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Wireless texting |
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Wireless phone service |
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Wireless internet |
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Radio |
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Quality of information shared |
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Transportation
Next, we will consider the impact of disruptions in Transportation.
Your organization provides a service that matches one or more items within the Transportation category. When we encounter such an item, consider disruptions in items only to include those not under your organization’s control. Items not under your organization’s control may include, for example, roads that are in your municipality but are managed by others (e.g., by DTOP or private toll road operators), or traffic conditions outside of your municipality. If none exist, please indicate ‘Not Applicable’.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
Primary roads |
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Secondary roads |
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Municipal roads |
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Transportation- other, e.g.s, airports, shipping ports, public transit |
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Water
Next, we will consider the impact of
disruptions in the Water sector.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
Sewer or stormwater, drainage, or flood control |
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Wastewater system |
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Water supply system |
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Energy
Next, we will consider the impact of disruptions in the Energy sector.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
PREPA (now Luma) electric power |
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Availability of temporary power sources (generators, batteries, etc.) |
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Availability of fuel (diesel, gasoline, ...) |
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Maintenance/repair service for temporary power sources, e.g., generators |
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Economy
Next, we will consider the impact of disruptions of the broader Economy. This includes disruptions in goods and services that were not previously called out.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
Labor hiring pool |
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Financial system |
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Suppliers to the transportation industry |
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Durable goods suppliers (heavy or light equipment not specific to the transportation industry) |
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General consumables (not fuel, not specific to the transportation industry) |
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Services (contracting, engineering, ...) |
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Government
Finally, we will consider the impact related to disruptions or general functioning of the Government.
To what extent did disruptions in the following impact service recovery?
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Not at all |
Very little |
Somewhat |
To a great extent |
NA |
DK |
General government operations, including law enforcement, permitting, ... |
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Government funding programs |
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Government planning processes |
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In this section, we want you to consider when disruptions in each of the six categories we just covered greatly impacted service recovery.
[Interviewer: Show (or have them retrieve) Table D]
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Table D. In which periods of time did disruptions in the following greatly impact service recovery?
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Landfall to 1 week |
1-4 weeks |
5-8 weeks |
9-12 weeks |
More than 12 weeks |
Communications |
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Transportation |
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Water |
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Energy |
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Economy |
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Government |
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Note: OK to indicate more than one period of time in each row.
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We are going to ask you to select the periods of time in which disruptions greatly impacted service recovery. The responses range from “Landfall to 1 week” to “More than 12 weeks”.
In which periods of time did disruptions in the following greatly impact service recovery? Please mark all that apply.
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Landfall to 1 week |
1-4 weeks |
5-8 weeks |
9-12 weeks |
More than 12 weeks |
Communications |
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Transportation |
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Water |
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Energy |
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Economy |
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Government |
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Now we ask you to rank each category by how much disruptions within the category impacted service recovery.
Please rank the six categories with ‘1’ being the most impactful and ‘6’ being the least impactful on service recovery.
Communications
Transportation
Water
Energy
Economy
Government
[Programmer note: please leave their ranking choices visible when answering 29 and 30
Can you describe your reasoning for the ranking? Please use examples.
[Open-ended]
How confident are you in the ranking? Why so?
[Open-ended]
You ranked disruptions in [Ranked #1 Impact] as the [#1] category impacting service recovery. As of today, what actions, if any, has your organization taken to reduce the extent to which future disruptions in [Ranked #1 Impact] will impact service recovery?
[Open-ended]
Did the actions taken help recover service following Hurricane Fiona? How so?
[Open-ended]
You ranked disruptions in [Ranked #2 Impact]
as the [#2] category impacting service recovery.
As of today, what actions, if
any, has your organization taken to reduce the extent to which
future disruptions in [Ranked #2 Impact] will impact service
recovery?
[Open-ended]
Did the actions taken help recover service following Hurricane Fiona? How so?
[Open-ended]
You ranked disruptions in [Ranked #3 Impact]
as the [#3] category impacting service recovery.
As of today, what actions, if
any, has your organization taken to reduce the extent to which
future disruptions in [Ranked #3 Impact] will impact service
recovery?
[Open-ended]
Did the actions taken help recover service following Hurricane Fiona? How so?
[Open-ended]
[Programmer: re-show their ranking from Q28]
[Interviewer: Remind them of their ranking] Would you have ranked the six categories differently for Hurricane Fiona? If so, why?
[Open-ended]
Section E: Present-day assessment
Now we turn to conditions as they are today.
We begin by asking how your system and organization have changed since Hurricane Maria.
Since Hurricane Maria, by how much has your system and your organization improved or worsened with respect to the following?
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Much better now |
Slightly better now |
Neither better nor worse now |
Slightly worse now |
Much worse now |
Hazard resistance of your system |
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Inventory of input, inventory of replacement parts, product storage |
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System redundancy (e.g., redundant/new/alternative sources and/or connections/lines) |
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Technology for monitoring and control |
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Training of personnel for hurricane season |
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Plans/protocols for hurricane season |
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Codes and Standards |
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Number and Quality of personnel |
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Condition today
Now we turn to your organization’s transportation service today.
[Interviewer: Once more, please show (or have them retrieve) Table A]
Again, please refer to Table A to see the range of potential responses.
We will ask similar questions to those asked earlier. We will ask about the extent to which your organization provides various service attributes. Specifically, the extent to which it supplying the demanded amount of transportation service, providing a safe transportation system, and providing a transportation system available at all times of the day.
Today, your organization supplies the demanded amount of transportation service for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Today, your organization provides a safe transportation system for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Today, your organization provides a transportation system available at all times of the day for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Had Hurricane Fiona not happened, would today’s level of service have been any different? Can you explain?
[Open-ended]
Expected condition one week after if a hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria were to make landfall today
Next, we consider the hypothetical case of another hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria.
Today, if a hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria were to make landfall, one week from now, your organization would supply the demanded amount of transportation service for travel to and from …
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Today, if a hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria were to make landfall, one week from now, your organization would provide a safe transportation system for travel to and from…
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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Today, if a hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria were to make landfall, one week from now, your organization would provide a transportation system that is available at all times of the day for travel to and from...
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4 (Completely) |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 (Not at all) |
NA |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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What factors best explain service levels one week after the landfall of a hurricane? Please give two examples.
[Open-ended]
Did these same factors influence service levels one week after Hurricane Fiona? How so?
[Open-ended]
Expected time to return to pre-hurricane level of service if a hurricane were to strike today
Next, we continue this hypothetical of another hurricane of a magnitude similar to Hurricane Maria making landfall today, but now asking how long you expect it will take for your organization to return to providing service to the same extent that it exists today.
[Interviewer: we are *not* asking about a return to pre-Hurricane Maria but instead to today’s levels]
[Interviewer: Please show (or have them retrieve) Table E]
Please refer to Table E to see the range of potential responses. Responses range from “Within a month” to “More than 7 years”.
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Table E. Time to return to today’s levels of service
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Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
More than 7 yrs |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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If a hurricane of the same magnitude as Hurricane Maria made landfall today, how long before your organization would return to supplying the demanded amount of transportation service at today’s levels for travel to and from...
|
Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
More than 7 yrs |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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If a hurricane of the same magnitude as Hurricane Maria were to occur today, how long before your organization would return to providing a safe transportation system at today’s levels for travel to and from...
|
Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
More than 7 yrs |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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If a hurricane of the same magnitude as Hurricane Maria were to occur today, how long before your organization would return to providing a transportation system available at all times of the day at today’s level for travel to and from...
|
Within a month |
1-6 months |
6-12 months |
1-2 years |
2-4 years |
4-7 years |
More than 7 yrs |
Not applicable |
All buildings |
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Critical buildings |
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Commercial buildings |
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Residential buildings |
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What factors best explain the amount of time to recover service following the landfall of a hurricane? Please give two examples.
[Open-ended]
Did these same factors influence the time to recover service following Hurricane Fiona? How so?
[Open-ended]
Now we ask the final question of this interview.
What is most needed to increase your organization’s ability to withstand the disruptions brought on by a disaster like Hurricane Maria and to rapidly recover from it?
[Open-ended]
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Faiz, Tasnim Ibn (Assoc) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2024-07-19 |