When heavy rain falls over Orocovis, in Puerto Rico’s Central Mountain Range, a team of municipal workers with heavy machinery quickly mobilizes to clear and reopen roads and paths. They know that landslides are almost inevitable and depending on the intensity and duration of the rain, dozens or even hundreds of families could be cut off.

For the town’s mayor, Jesús “Gardy” Colón Berlingeri, this has become routine. Yet he knows the problem doesn’t just strain the municipal budget; it costs the town about $200,000 every year, but also drives up expenses for transporters, forces residents to take long detours through towns like Coamo or Barranquitas, and fuels frustration and stress among drivers. After Hurricane Fiona in 2022, for example, access from Orocovis to Morovis was blocked for four days.

Braulio López, a security guard who started a side business collecting debris to earn extra income, knows firsthand how dangerous these landslides and the alternate routes they force can be. Detours often turn workdays into long, grueling journeys.

“I almost went over a cliff,” López recalled of an experience about eight months ago. “I had to do some acrobatics, as I call them. Maneuvering little by little in reverse, risking my life, until I finally made it out.”

López was driving his pickup back to Utuado after a job in Orocovis when part of the road gave way due to a landslide. It wasn’t the first time. He encountered similar collapses on both municipal and state roads in the mountainous regions of Utuado and Jayuya.

To prepare for hurricane season, which began on June 1, the Municipality of Orocovis had to rent additional equipment to clear debris and reopen roads, Mayor Colón Berlingeri told the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI).

In Puerto Rico, it doesn’t take a storm or a hurricane for roads to be damaged by landslides or even sinkholes. Data from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) show that at least 404 landslides have occurred on Puerto Rican roads between January 2018 and August 2025. The real number is likely higher, since not all landslides are formally documented by the government or reported by citizens.

The Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (ACT, in Spanish) keeps data only on road damage, mostly on state roads, associated with weather events that led to an official emergency or disaster declaration. The agency does not record landslides caused by rainfall events that didn’t trigger such declarations, even when they resulted in temporary closures of municipal or state roads. The ACT’s data were last updated in 2022.

The public corporation acknowledged, in response to questions from the CPI, that it lacks a comprehensive database of landslides affecting Puerto Rico’s road network. ACT spokesperson Lismari Cora Zambrana said the agency is now developing a database that includes landslides previously undocumented by the agency but reported by mayors, district legislators, and community members.

“The ACT is developing a structured database that includes both cases [of landslides] under repair and those recently identified,” she told the CPI.

For this investigation, the CPI analyzed the data provided by the ACT. But since those records were incomplete, the CPI turned to the federal NWS, which provided a database of landslide reports gathered through social media, news outlets, and the emergency 9-1-1 system. The CPI relied on the NWS data because they were more comprehensive, covering both municipal and state roads affected by any event, whether it was declared an emergency or not.

Although satellite technology now makes it possible to identify all landslides along roadways, government coordination is lacking to address the issue, said environmental planner and geologist Héctor Rivera Mercado, president of the Puerto Rico Planning Society.

“Technology today is widely available,” said Rivera Mercado, a former data and geospatial information systems specialist for the Puerto Rico Planning Board and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “The challenge is to centralize and organize the information.”

Rivera Mercado stressed the importance of maintaining an updated and accurate record of landslides affecting roads to guide planning and emergency response strategies. While such a registry does not currently exist, the ACT acknowledged that creating one is “essential to strengthen planning, prioritize interventions, and design long-term resilient solutions.” Cora Zambrana reiterated that the agency is working toward developing a more complete registry.

Landslides Are a Common Occurrence

Stephen Hughes, a professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (known as RUM), explained that landslides occur frequently on the island due to its climate, soil composition, and land use. As a result, their causes are not limited to hurricanes or storms; they can also be triggered by troughs, tropical waves, or even ordinary rainfall, including during years with little tropical activity. However, the geomorphologist noted that large-scale weather events such as hurricanes or tropical storms tend to cause the most significant number of landslides at once.

For instance, Hurricane María caused at least 802 landslides on roads across Puerto Rico, according to data from the ACT.

“In a given year, there may be more landslides caused by non-tropical cyclone events, since there can be few or no tropical cyclones affecting the island,” Hughes said. “To have a landslide, we don’t need a tropical storm or a hurricane.”

A CPI investigation found that delays in rebuilding roads affected by landslides, along with the lack of precise data on the stretches most prone to them, make it harder to adapt road infrastructure to the increasing frequency of storms and heavy rainfall expected due to the climate crisis.

Carlos Fournier Morales, president of the Puerto Rico College of Engineers and Land Surveyors (CIAPR, in Spanish), emphasized the importance of properly documenting damage caused by natural events, such as landslides on roads, so engineers can rely on accurate data when building, repairing, and maintaining transportation infrastructure.

Fournier Morales argued that there is no need for additional studies to account for the effects of climate change in road design and construction, since hydrological and soil studies already exist to assess and mitigate risks. He explained that each project design must meet these study requirements, which incorporate updated rainfall data from previous weather events. Regarding landslide control, he noted that “part of the considerations in soil studies involves examining the terrain using inclinometers and borings to make accurate and safe recommendations.”

“If the studies show it’s not the best place to build because of landslide risks, listen to nature and don’t challenge it,” he said.

The surveyor also pointed out that regulations and standards for road design and construction are continually updated. Past disasters and scientific research are considered, particularly when revising existing building and design codes and manuals.

Fournier Morales also acknowledged that the ACT, which is under the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP, in Spanish), has worked to educate engineers about the importance of applying more durable and sustainable road designs. He said the ACT had developed federally funded proposals to incorporate sustainability, longevity, and maintenance elements into road designs, particularly pavements. Still, those programs were interrupted due to funding cuts under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The ACT did not respond to this claim, despite a request for comment from the CPI.

Around the world, governments are discussing measures to adapt road infrastructure to the climate crisis. For example, the European Union published a study urging its member states to analyze the vulnerability of their road networks and assess the risks posed by climate change to prevent disruptions in mobility. It called on countries to incorporate adaptation measures into the technical regulations for all new road designs or structural rehabilitations, and to build retention ponds, levees, retaining walls, or seawalls.

Hawaii commissioned a study on the impacts of climate change on its roads, including an expected increase in landslides due to more intense rainfall in the coming years. To address this problem, the report recommended precipitation studies, landslide and rockfall monitoring programs, and a full evaluation of the transportation infrastructure to modify it as needed.

In Puerto Rico, the Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Plan, submitted to the Legislature in April 2024, includes adaptation measures for transportation infrastructure. However, the plan has not yet been approved.

The DTOP’s press officer did not respond to the CPI’s question about whether the agency has a plan to adapt Puerto Rico’s roads to climate change, like those in other jurisdictions. No such plan was found on the agency’s website.

ACT spokesperson Lismari Cora Zambrana said that the DTOP and the ACT have adopted a strategic, multidimensional approach to integrating climate change principles into the planning, programming, and prioritization of their transportation infrastructure projects. This effort is primarily reflected in the agency’s active project plans, she said.

“The ACT has effectively integrated climate change guidelines into its strategic planning, project prioritization, and implementation of infrastructure solutions,” she said.

The spokesperson added that both DTOP and ACT have incorporated geotechnical studies, updated risk maps, and runoff modeling to anticipate more intense rainfall events, particularly for projects in vulnerable areas, as part of their climate adaptation measures. She noted that, after Hurricane María in 2017, the agencies also adopted guidelines for resilient infrastructure design, revised flood maps, and implemented more rigorous hydrological studies, as required by federal policy.

Roads Left Unprotected and Vulnerable

Stephen Hughes, a professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, told the CPI that landslides in Puerto Rico occur due to the fragility of the terrain, heavy rainfall, and the alterations caused by road construction in steep areas. The risk is especially high in sandy and sloped regions. He warned that rising precipitation levels in some parts of the island, driven by climate change, could lead to more frequent collapses.

“Drainage and runoff management are a top priority because many of these landslides happen in areas where water accumulates,” the professor cautioned.

According to Hughes, retaining walls and drainage projects, such as sewer systems and deep gutters, should be prioritized to mitigate landslides affecting Puerto Rico’s road infrastructure. Among the reconstruction projects the DTOP submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are works like those the professor recommended, which were destroyed by Hurricane María and are slated to be repaired or reinstalled, according to a 2021 report from the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Council.

As of late September, the Puerto Rico Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) reported that only 26 of the 579 road and bridge projects submitted by DTOP for FEMA funding had been completed. The municipalities of Utuado, Guayanilla, Orocovis, Adjuntas, and Jayuya have the highest number of pending projects in this category.

The rising cost of construction materials has driven project expenses well above their initial budgets, forcing DTOP and the ACT to request cost adjustments, confirmed Edwin González Montalvo, the secretary of DTOP and executive director of ACT.

González Montalvo added that the agency has also faced a labor shortage and multiple failed bids for its projects.

“In Puerto Rico, a tropical island, our road infrastructure has gone far too long without the improvements it needs,” González Montalvo told the CPI.

The engineer noted that Executive Order 2025-04, which the governor signed earlier this year, aims to accelerate the reconstruction of transportation infrastructure. The measure exempts road reconstruction projects from the usual permitting requirements of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA, in Spanish), the Permits Management Office (OGPe, in Spanish), and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, though federal requirements still apply.

In May, the ACT identified 2,935 roads and bridges across Puerto Rico that will be prioritized under the executive order, including sections damaged by collapses, rockfalls, and landslides.

In addition to the FEMA-funded reconstruction projects, the ACT is overseeing 1,228 road and bridge projects financed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) — most of them damaged by landslides after Hurricane María. To date, 619 of those projects have been completed, while the remaining 609 are in the design, bidding, or construction phase, according to Primera Hora. The public corporation has completed nearly 50 percent of the projects eight years after the hurricane.

Inflation Slows Down Reconstruction

For six decades, Adalberto “Beto” Bermúdez, owner of the restaurant Sabor Criollo, has lived in the La Pica sector of Yabucoa. The PR-3 highway connects residents of that community to the town center.

Landslides are common there, he said. During periods of heavy rainfall, soil and rocks slide down from the hillsides. On several occasions, the roughly 200 families who live in La Pica, a community that also extends into the neighboring town of Maunabo, have been forced to take detours and drive longer routes to buy basic goods because landslides blocked the main road.

“You don’t need a storm to trigger a landslide,” said the small business owner. “All it takes is a trough or a week or two of rain.”

According to Yabucoa press officer Gil Burgos, the rising cost of construction materials has made the funds managed by FEMA and the COR3 insufficient to complete road reconstruction projects.

Barranquitas Mayor Elliot Colón Blanco also blamed inflation for delays in his municipality’s reconstruction efforts.

For example, his town still has pending repairs on Camino David Berríos, a road that connects the Barrancas community to PR-771. The mayor said FEMA approved additional funding for the project after costs exceeded the original budget.

In Aguada, the town’s director of Planning and Land Use, Wesley Vega López, said that several projects remain in the planning stage due to a shortage of specialized engineering and architecture firms, which has delayed other municipal works.

“Prices are definitely out of line,” Vega López said. “They’ve been much higher than what was budgeted.”

In recent years, calls to adjust project budgets to account for inflation have been a recurring demand from COR3 leadership.

In 2023, former executive director Manuel Laboy Rivera reported meeting with members of the U.S. Congress to discuss the issue. Late 2024, in his transition report to the current administration, he noted that project costs still had not been adjusted despite repeated efforts by the agency. This year, his successor, Eduardo Soria Rivera, reiterated during the anniversary of Hurricane María that reconstruction budgets must be updated to reflect inflation.

Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) also found that one of the biggest obstacles to Puerto Rico’s reconstruction was inflation in construction and labor costs. The agency urged FEMA to address the problem promptly.

FEMA spokesperson Carmen Edith Torres said the agency has the legal authority to adjust the cost of specific recovery projects under its Public Assistance program for various reasons, including inflation.

“It’s the subrecipient’s responsibility to provide FEMA with all necessary documentation to justify a cost alignment and validate the eligible work or expenses,” she explained.

Federal Bureaucracy Takes Its Toll

Every time it rains, the likelihood of a landslide increases along PR-119 in San Sebastián.

When that happens, José Ríos Villanueva, a resident of the Hoyamala neighborhood, must take a detour to get to his job in Aguadilla on time — adding 20 to 25 minutes to his commute.

Former San Sebastián mayor Javier Jiménez Pérez described the information requirements imposed by the COR3 and the FEMA as “ridiculous.” FEMA routinely requests additional information from government agencies and municipalities when it needs more details about a project. According to the agency, if the requested information is not provided within the required timeframe, the applicant’s request for assistance will be denied.

“If you’ve already hired an engineer, what’s the logic in bringing in another engineer to review their work, only to ask about technical issues that the first one already addressed?” Jiménez Pérez said. “It just makes the project more expensive administratively and delays completion within a reasonable time frame.”

Coamo Mayor Juan Carlos García Padilla explained that his municipality had several pending projects to mitigate landslides. As of May 2025, the construction of several deep gutters and retaining walls along roads connected to PR-723 was still pending, according to COR3 data. By September, eight years after Hurricane María, most of those projects had been completed.

The mayor said that inconsistent guidance from COR3 and FEMA regarding documentation and information requirements contributed to lengthy delays.

“There was a lot of staff turnover, a lot of confusion over how to interpret federal laws, and difficulty reaching agreements between FEMA and the municipalities,” García Padilla said.

In Corozal, municipal spokesperson Juan Carlos Hernández blamed FEMA’s excessive bureaucracy for the delay in building retaining walls along roads in the Parcelas Medina community, near PR-803. The project finally went out to bid this year, even though it had been submitted more than five years ago. He said the delay was caused by the federal agency being “overly strict.”

Laboy Rivera said during last November’s government transition hearings that FEMA’s bureaucracy stems from its environmental and historic preservation requirements for evaluating reconstruction projects.

To reduce red tape, the GAO recommended in 2024 that FEMA reevaluate its information request protocols and hire more staff to review documentation quicker.

That same year, FEMA took an average of 14 days to review and verify compliance for each public assistance project. The FEMA spokesperson told the CPI that the agency’s environmental and historic review process “helps identify any potential impacts early on, guiding decision-making to avoid or mitigate harm to valuable resources.”

She added that, over the past year, FEMA has focused on hiring specialists in environmental protection and historic preservation, and on developing tools in collaboration with other federal agencies to speed up environmental reviews for reconstruction projects.

Contractors Show Little Interest in Reconstruction Projects

Utuado Mayor Jorge Pérez Heredia acknowledged that he has had to organize multiple bidding rounds for the same project because construction companies show little interest in submitting proposals.

“It’s a challenge because contractors don’t like to bid for projects up here,” he admitted. “It’s not the same to work on flat land as it is in the mountains, where it rains every day after 1 p.m. and construction has to stop.”

A study by consulting firm Pacífico Group found that only 28% of contractors who attend pre-bid meetings for municipal reconstruction projects eventually submit a formal proposal. The analysis included participation from 54 municipalities and 69 construction firms.

“The type of project is a factor in 16% of cases, since companies prefer projects that match their expertise or that are profitable enough,” the study stated. “Geographic location is another factor, with 10% of respondents saying that costs and logistics can discourage participation, particularly in projects far from their main area of operation.”

Maricao Mayor Wilfredo “Junny” Ruiz Feliciano also said the municipality has faced failed bidding processes for roadwork. He attributed the lack of interest to the town’s steep, rainy terrain — conditions that increase risk and lead to frequent work stoppages, among other factors that drive up costs.

“Contractors know Maricao is a tough place to work because of all the rain,” he said.

Marlon Meléndez Ayala, director of Orocovis’s Office of Planning and Development, explained that the town’s geography is a disadvantage when it comes to attracting professional services such as designers and firms that conduct soil, hydrology, and environmental studies.

In Adjuntas, Mayor José Hiram Soto Rivera added that as of May this year, several gabion wall projects remained incomplete because of failed bids. Contractors, he said, tend to choose projects closer to their distribution centers.

According to COR3 data, as of late September, the municipality had completed only one road and bridge project related to hurricane damage, eight years after the storm.

“We’ve been struggling with hiring because contractors just don’t show up,” said Soto Rivera.

Former president of the Puerto Rico Builders Association Emilio Colón Zavala told the CPI that the limited participation of construction companies in road reconstruction bids is partly due to the lack of specialized equipment.

The engineer explained that most qualified companies are based in cities such as Ponce, Mayagüez, and San Juan, which makes projects in the central mountainous region more expensive, particularly because of transportation and fuel costs.

After Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017, there was at least one landslide per square kilometer across much of Puerto Rico’s central mountain range, according to FEMA.

Puerto Rico’s road system spans roughly 14,400 kilometers, according to the Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Plan developed by the Expert Committee on Climate Change (CEACC).

“The landslides triggered by Hurricane María caused fatalities, blocked roads and trails, and isolated communities from emergency response operations,” FEMA noted in its report Transportation: Bridges, Culverts, Roads, and Landslides.

The document warned that Puerto Rico’s slopes remain unstable and the soil exposed, increasing the likelihood of further erosion and landslides.

In that environmental assessment, FEMA recommended the construction of horizontal piles, concrete backfill, gabion and retaining walls, and other stabilization measures to mitigate landslides along roadways. The agency also advised the development of stormwater drainage systems.

The Climate Change Plan, which is still awaiting legislative approval, warns that many mountain roads are built in high-risk areas prone to landslides and slope failures.

“If an area that has suffered soil erosion remains untreated, the size of destabilized zones could increase as storms further erode the substrate,” FEMA’s evaluation states. “An examination of landslides caused by Hurricane María revealed that most occurred inland, not in the coastal plains, where slopes are steeper and rainfall rates are higher.”

A 2018 study by the USGS found that the deadliest landslides in the United States have typically occurred in areas that had previously experienced similar events.

A spokesperson for the DTOP and the ACT said that since Hurricane María, both agencies have incorporated specific measures in reconstruction projects to strengthen road infrastructure against landslides. These include replacing unstable materials in vulnerable areas, building retaining walls, and reinforcing slopes to extend the lifespan of those structures. The agencies have also implemented drainage systems to improve water flow and stabilized terrain using vegetation, rocks, and filtering materials.

“In particular, drainage systems in rural and mountainous areas are being redesigned to handle greater water volume and reduce runoff and flood risks. This remains a top priority across all rehabilitation and new road design projects,” the agencies stated.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.