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Tropical Storm Ernesto Threat Assessment

August 13, 2024

Healthcare Ready is MONITORING for this event. We are monitoring potential concerns for supply chain disruptions and impacts on healthcare services on our Alert Hub.

Contents

• Situation Overview
• Potential Impacts to Health Care
• Potential Supply Chain Impacts

Situation Overview

• As of August 13, Tropical Storm Ernesto is expected to generate significant rainfall and storm conditions to the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico this evening. There is a high risk of flash flooding due to the heavy rainfall expected. The storm is projected to trail off north into the Atlantic later in the week.

Potential Impacts to Health Care

• USVI
  • On August 8, Pafford Medical Services concluded their emergency medical service operations in the US Virgin Islands. This includes the 40 employees within the territory who provided dialysis, ambulance, and integrated mobile health care services.
    • USVI Government and agencies that had utilized Pafford medical services have established contingency plans to ensure the continuity of accessing medical services.
    • With this tropical storm approaches USVI, it is crucial that these contingency plans effectively ensure access to healthcare and emergency services.
• Puerto Rico
  • On August 12, Puerto Rico activated the National Guard to assist with response and recovery.
  • Additionally, Governor Pierluisi opened shelters throughout the island to prepare for the storm.
    • The San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero opened two shelters for bedridden patients and homeless individuals.

Potential Supply Chain Impacts

• USVI
  • While pharmaceutical and medical product exports are low, USVI’s top exports are crude petroleum and refined petroleum products. A major impact to the territory could result in minor delays to that sector however impact to the US supply chain should be low.
• Puerto Rico
  • There is a significant pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing footprint in Puerto Rico. However, with the high volume of tropical storms impacting Puerto Rico, there have been extensive investments made into the preparedness, response, and recovery operations on the island over the last few years to increase resiliency.
  • We are aware of some medical device manufacturers that have fulfillment sites in Puerto Rico; those operations could be impacted and/or exacerbate ongoing shortages

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