UPR Cayey lands $2.6M grant for emergency resiliency program
The University of Puerto Rico Cayey’s “Resilience Recovering Revamping and Supporting Students” project — a federal proposal by the Puerto Rico Department of Education — got a $2.6 million grant to strengthen the campus’ resilience capacity in the face of a possible weather emergency like Hurricanes Irma and María.
The campus, which is one of meeting points in Puerto Rico’s General Evacuation Plan, recently completed the projects that make it the “most prepared institution to face a climatological onslaught on the island,” school officials said.
The campus has a modern emergency operations center equipped with solar panels, an industrial kitchen, a power plant, a 3,000-gallon water supply, food storage, a meeting room, bathrooms with showers, and a sleeping area.
Through the project, UPR Cayey also installed power generators in its library and in the well located in the institution, as well as elevators in the new science building and in the Ramón Frade Theatre.
“The environment that we serve supports the network established by the National Guard during an emergency event, to supply water to the municipality’s different communities,” said the Director of the Office of Health, Occupational Safety and Environmental Protection, Gabriel Aponte.
The campus also remodelled the elevators of the library, the computer center, the Arturo Morales Carrión building and the student building, as well as three residences to house students that are left homeless or are at high risk of that.
UPR Cayey also bought two minivans to transport students to events and a 60-passenger bus to transport those students who park in the vicinity of the institution to the campus.
