Today, projects focused on sports in Carolina, San Juan and Caguas were visited
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico –To review the progress of recovery projects in the municipalities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) together with the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resiliency (COR3) conducted a series of visits to different facilities that have been renovated.
FEMA's Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator, José Baquero, visited the Roberto Clemente Walker Stadium in Carolina and the Rebekah Colberg Sports Complex in San Juan. Both visits to the sports facilities were attended by the respective mayors, José Aponte Dalmau and Miguel Romero Lugo, who confirmed the progress in the recovery of the municipalities. Meanwhile, in Caguas, Deputy Mayor Lydia Rivera Denizard toured the Yldefonso Solá Morales ballpark.
“At the beginning of our journey to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria, we saw how important it is to support municipalities in moving forward with their projects. In these visits we reviewed construction projects, we saw the great positive impact on the local economy and communities when these facilities are built and completed,” said Baquero.
The Roberto Clemente Walker Stadium, home of professional baseball's Carolina Giants, received a total of nearly $18.4 million in federal funds from FEMA for reconstruction work.
“The entire playing field, which was a brand-new field, was completely damaged so we had to replace it. With the help of FEMA, we redid all the paving in the parking lot, which is very large with a capacity for 3,500 vehicles. It's the municipalities that are leading the recovery efforts of these facilities, not just the sports facilities. Our Doctor's Center Hospital had to be repaired, the city hall, the schools, the Children's Museum, the beach. All these projects had significant damage and thanks to the collaboration of FEMA and its team and COR3, these facilities are now fully repaired,” said Carolina Mayor, Aponte Dalmau.
In addition to addressing structural damage, repairing lighting, air conditioners and electrical systems damaged by Hurricane Maria, funds were also allocated for hazard mitigation work to help the Roberto Clemente Stadium better face future disasters. In total, over $1 million has been earmarked for this purpose.
Later in the visit to the Municipality of San Juan, the Mayor showed the repairs of the Rebekah Colberg Sports Complex, whose construction has already been completed.
“This project began work by November 2019 and was culminated in October of last year. It had an investment of about $3.5 million. Here everything complies with the codes, the highest construction standards, so that in the event of another hurricane, the facility is more protected and can better withstand it,” Romero Lugo said.
To make these projects stronger and more resilient to future disasters, FEMA approved over $1.5 million in funds from its Hazard Mitigation program to address the Rebekah Colberg Sports School, the Specialized School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, and the San Juan School. Of that total, about $646,000 was allocated for construction work at the Rebekah Colberg Sports School.
Moreover, in the Municipality of Caguas, the Yldefonso Solá Morales baseball park, which inaugurated in the late 1940s, received a FEMA funding allocation of nearly $4 million to repair damage. The sound system’s speakers, scoreboards and indoor artificial turf were repaired at the park. Part of the approved funds include an allocation of nearly $74,000 from the Hazard Mitigation program to help make the facilities in better condition to withstand another future disaster.
This obligation to the Yldefonso Solá Morales baseball park is part of an allocation in the Parks and Recreational Facilities category of over $28.1 million, which covers a total of 45 projects. In the Municipality of Caguas there are a total of 114 obligated projects representing over $112 million in FEMA funds.
The visit to the municipalities of Carolina, San Juan and Caguas joins the agency's efforts to visit projects in other municipalities on the island. During the past few days, FEMA staff have visited facilities in Loíza, Orocovis and Barranquitas. Also, agency representatives participated in the groundbreaking activity for the construction of the Cañabón neighborhood bridge at kilometer 5.5 of PR-770 in Barranquitas.
The agency will soon visit the towns of Barceloneta, Fajardo, Villalba, Bayamón and Salinas.
For more information on Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane María, visit fema.gov/disaster/4339 and recovery.pr. Follow us on our social media at Facebook.com/FEMAPuertoRico, Facebook.com/COR3pr and Twitter @COR3pr.