Letter from the table: A deadline is not a reopening plan

To the chair of the Resilience Council,

I am writing from Santo Domingo with a question about our strategy. When we ask for insurance claims to be decided within 30 days and bridge funding to arrive within 10 days of a declared disaster, what do we expect those deadlines to change for a business that cannot reopen while water, power, access and paperwork are all unresolved?

I oppose the proposal as it is framed now. I support the aim: owners should not be left alone to work out how to reopen after a storm. But a deadline is not, by itself, a reopening plan. I worry we are measuring what institutions promise to do, rather than whether an owner can get back to work.

During Tropical Storm Franklin, from 22 to 24 August 2023, I had to deal with the consequences of heavy rain and disruption here in Santo Domingo. I will not describe my business or what it does. The details that matter are ordinary ones: water reached the place where I worked; I could not use it as usual; and I had to keep paying immediate expenses while trying to establish what had been damaged and what could be done next.

On 24 August I paid DOP 18,500 for urgent cleaning and repairs. On 28 August I paid another DOP 9,200 for temporary measures and transport. I had DOP 41,000 available for immediate needs. These are my own figures, not a claim about what every owner faces. They show how quickly a problem becomes a cash problem: the spending came before I had a clear picture of the loss or knew what help, if any, I could qualify for.

I tried to find practical information. I followed the storm updates and alerts from the Centro de Operaciones de Emergencias, the COE, and checked official information about conditions. That helped me understand the public situation; it did not tell me what documents to assemble, who could assess the damage, or where to turn for short-term money. I also had to work out what to do about insurance. In the Dominican

Republic, insurance is regulated under Law 146-02, with the Superintendencia de Seguros as the supervisory institution. Knowing that framework exists is not the same as knowing the status of a particular claim or how to keep a small operation going while it is assessed.

That gap is why I am asking about the Reopen Map. If it is a map of where trouble happened, it may document our losses. If it is a tool that points an owner to verified local help—municipal services, public alerts, the relevant insurance route, emergency assistance, and steps for reopening—it could be much more useful. I would want it to distinguish confirmed services from suggestions, show when information was last checked, and work for an owner who has only a phone and limited time.

A 30-day decision target may be useful as a measure of service. A 10-day bridge-funding target may also sound humane. But “within 10 days of a declared disaster” raises a question for people like me: which declaration, by whom, and what happens when a small owner needs help before a formal declaration or cannot satisfy the first paperwork request? And a claim decision within 30 days does not necessarily mean the claim is paid, that a disputed amount is resolved, or that the premises are usable.

I would rather see the Council test a sequence of commitments. First, tell owners promptly what evidence is needed and where to submit it. Second, give a named point of contact and a status update when the file is incomplete or delayed. Third, make emergency bridge support accessible through a clear, published route, with simple eligibility information and a way to ask for review. Finally, track days to reopen, not just days to decide a claim. Those steps do not replace deadlines; they make deadlines mean something to the person waiting.

I also ask that the Council be careful about what it promises before it has tested how the standard would work across different countries and disasters. Our institutions, insurance arrangements and emergency procedures are not identical. The COE has an important role in public emergency coordination here, but it cannot be treated as a single doorway to every repair, claim or financing decision. A standard should help owners navigate the institutions that exist, not imply that one deadline can make them operate as one.