После Марии федеральный штат на острове вырос с 3 500 до более 10 000

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the federal umbrella under which FEMA operates. To understand the role of national security in territorial disasters, a primary document archived on dhs.gov —Overview of Federal Efforts to Prepare for and Respond to Hurricane Maria, published on September 29, 2017— shows how DHS coordinated the interagency response when Maria hit Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands after Irma. It is not a dataset of obligations; it is an operational chronicle of mobilization. Obligated ≠ deployed staff ≠ meals delivered, but each layer matters.

According to that DHS/FEMA Public Affairs overview, the FEMA National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) had already been at Level I activation since August 25, 2017, due to Harvey, with Emergency Support Functions operational and including Department of Defense liaisons. Before María, there was already federal personnel in Puerto Rico and the USVI due to Irma: Federal Coordinating Officers, Incident Management Assistance Teams, and staff from the Caribbean Area Division. On September 18, the President issued emergency declarations for the USVI territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; on September 20, major disaster declarations were issued upon landfall.

The document itself lists verifiable milestones for the first fortnight: on September 21, more than 3,500 federal staff in PR and USVI; on the 22nd, more than 7,000 federal staff including 280 from FEMA; on the 25th, more than 10,000 federal staff including more than 700 from FEMA; on September 29, more than 10,000 federal staff from 36 departments and agencies, with more than 800 FEMA personnel. FEMA US&R task forces, by September 27, had rescued or assisted 841 people and five pets after searching more than 2,600 structures. FEMA and partners reported having provided more than 1.5 million meals and 1.1 million liters of water to USVI and Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria's landfall (overview figure as of September 25). The Federal Highway Administration made $40 million available to the PR highway authority for emergency relief on impacted roads — document label: “made available,” not “disbursed” or “obligated” in the OpenFEMA sense.

What does a 2026 journalist do with a 2017 overview? They use it as a baseline for DHS/FEMA response capability against the subsequent narrative of slow recovery. The initial response —staff, US&R, food, water, generators, ports, hospitals— is different from the permanent reconstruction funded by PA, HMA, or CDBG-DR. Whoever confuses 'there were 10,000 federal staff' with 'the network was rebuilt' mixes phases. The overview also names actors who still matter in institutional memory: USACE, Coast Guard, National Guard, HHS/DMAT, DOE, DLA, FAA, GSA, Red Cross.

DHS's role for territories does not end at the day-after. FEMA continues to be a component of DHS; oversight is exercised by the DHS Office of Inspector General; the policy of "federally supported, state led, locally executed" appears in the department's contemporary framing. For Puerto Rico, that implies that the governance of recovery goes through COR3 and local applicants, with FEMA providing technical and financial support, and with DHS setting the framework for national security and interagency coordination. María's overview is primary evidence of what that machine looked like in 2017.

Precautions: the document is archived and DHS warns that the archive may not reflect current policy. Do not invent reconstruction totals based on meals or headcount. Use the overview for response chronology and cross-check with OpenFEMA (DR-4339) for the project obligation phase. If the angle is oversight, go to OIG reports; if it is long-term housing, go to HUD. Cousin: none. Topic: politics. Primary source: DHS blog overview María September 29, 2017.