Puerto Rico as rebuilding model

[RandyT0001]

Though not devastated by world wide nuclear war can we use the severity of the disaster in Puerto Rico to model a MP rebuilding scheme that would have been followed if the Project was activated as designed, five years post war? This way we can answer some of the questions about that rebuilding process, the supplies needed and staging for recovery.

[kato13]

Other than the fact that I expect the project to US rail-lines significantly, I can see how a Puerto Rico rebuilding could be comparable.

That fact that everything will need to be moved in by ship and ports will be a HUGE bottleneck for quite a while will be a large difference. However I just get the feeling it will be easier to track the relief efforts for research purposes with fewer points of transit.

As far as I understand Puerto Rico used to have an agriculturally based economy yet now imports 82% of its food. I see parallels in quite a few regions of a post apoc US that would be in a similar boat. I have been reading that the mix of the economic breakdown before the hurricane, large scale migration off the island, and the extensive storm damage might push Puerto Rico to be quite a bit more agrarian in the next decade.

[cosmicfish]

There is one enormous difference between the Project and any real recovery action I've ever heard of: the delay. The Project expects to wait several years before responding to the aftermath of the war, and that is a huge difference. It's the difference between Tom Hanks at the beginning of Castaway and Tom Hanks at the end of Castaway.

The people of Puerto Rico need emergency services, but if they were left alone for 5 years then whomever was left, while certainly In need, are almost as certainly in a stable if unpleasant position. Puerto Rico needs power because there are people who will die without it. Puerto Rico 5 years post-war, those people are already dead.

The timeline is different, the needs are different, everything is different. The closer parallels are with groups like the Peace Corps, groups that go into bad but relatively stable places and try to make their lives better.

[RandyT0001]

I am not talking about the relief effort or the emergency response. Like the guy that builds the Telsa car, who offered assistance to the governor to rebuild the power grid to incorporate solar power and like the Peace Corps assisting a impoverished country, we create a plan of action to rebuild Puerto Rico. The survivors will be leaner and, generally, self reliant at a lower tech level than formerly possessed. What will two or three combined teams need to rebuild and restore the previous technological integration as existed before a nuclear event?

[cosmicfish]

But even then the scale is vastly different. In rebuilding Puerto Rico we will be using vast resources to restore a 21st century standard of living. The Project has advanced technology, but that's the only similarity. The Project isn't trying to (in any short term) rebuild pre-war civilization - they are trying to elevate an existing and relatively stable, low-tech society to something better. They have fusion plants and water treatment plants, birthday aren't rebuilding towns, they are elevating basic needs.

The Peace Corps and Special Forces don't rebuild - They elevate.

[RandyT0001]

Actually, TMP is about rebuilding the representative federal government and re-integrating the former territories. It really does not specify at what technological level this must be accomplished. I was wrong in that aspect. (Of course, those teams in Canada are to reconstruct it's federal government.)

From the book:

Objective:

The Project’s objective is the reconstruction of the USA as a functioning Nation State.

Success conditions

The Morrow Project can be said to have been successful when:

• The US government is functioning throughout the territory of the USA and in a form that is as close to the current Constitution as the surviving citizens are capable of achieving.
• This government effectively controls legitimate social, political, economic and security institutions that meet the population’s needs, including adequate mechanisms to address any grievances that may have arisen before or during the Reconstruction Effort.
• Any group opposed to this reconstruction of the USA (for whatever reason) has been effectively co-opted, marginalized, or separated from the population, with the voluntary assistance and consent of the population; and;
• Any armed non-governmental forces (including the Morrow Project) have decamped or been demobilized, and/or been integrated into the political, economic, and social structures of the USA.

[kato13]

Is five years neglect after stikes greater than one hurricane? Yes in many cases, but for hardy things , like sewage transport and processing and roadway clearance we might also find some interesting parallels.

For the soft parts of the infrastructure, I am mostly interested in creative solutions coming out of the PR situation. If someone can set up a cell phone network and power generation and supply system in 1/4 the estimated time those types of ideas would hopefully be similar to ones the project would have.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Actually, TMP is about rebuilding the representative federal government and re-integrating the former territories. It really does not specify at what technological level this must be accomplished. I was wrong in that aspect. (Of course, those teams in Canada are to reconstruct it's federal government.)

From the book:

Is this from 4ed? I don't remember this from 3rd.

Regardless, while I am not sure that restoring the exact United States should be the goal of the Project, my point had little to do with politics. Near term goals will be about raising the standard of living to the point where basic necessities are widly available with enough margin that people have the ability to organize into a real society. And that is not like recovering from hurricanes.