About two-thirds of Puerto Rico’s population had already lost power during Hurricane Irma when Hurricane Maria landed in September of 2017, shutting down power across the rest of the island.
Seeing the devastation caused by the storm and the conditions resulting from loss of electricity, Fernando Tormos-Aponte, an assistant professor of sociology in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, knew he had to act.
Despite his first instinct to head to his homeland and help with the recovery effort, he knew it didn’t align with his skill set. “I had to have a frank reflection and identify how I was poised to help,” Tormos-Aponte said. “It came down to: I’m a social scientist. So how can I help in that way?”
He did what he knows best. Tormos-Aponte has spent a considerable part of his career understanding the connections between the environment and civil society. After Hurricane Maria, he began to gather and analyze data needed to clearly illustrate which communities are most exposed to the burdens of power loss before, during and after natural disasters. He wanted to be able to present decision-makers with the information they needed to guide more effective, equitable disaster preparedness as well as response strategies that would protect the most vulnerable.
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