Island Cities and Disaster Risk: A Study of San Juan’s Hurricane Early Warning System

Early warning systems offer a common framework for national, state, and local actors to prepare for, respond to, and understand disaster risk. Existing scholarship mostly examines early warning systems at an aggregate level for small islands, without many case studies of how early warning systems work in specific island cities. In order to address the need to expand the evidence base of case studies on early warning systems on small islands, this paper offers a multi-sector case study of San Juan’s relationship and engagement with Puerto Rico’s hurricane early warning system. It maps out various facets of the hurricane early warning system in San Juan; classifies them as hierarchical or heterarchical; and evaluates the early warning system based on the strengths and weaknesses of either approach. Finally, the paper reflects on possible implications of these findings to other island cities on subnational island territories similar to Puerto Rico.