The aim of this study was to identify regulations that were established and implemented as an emergency disaster response to intense rain and floods generated by the El Niño coastal phenomenon.

A search was conducted for the legal norms approved and published between December 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017, in El Peruano, Peru’s official newspaper. Twenty legal norms involved disaster emergency response, rehabilitation, and the reconstruction of the affected regions.

Forty-six legal norms were identified, of which 41% were aimed at the declaration of emergencies and alerts, 22% to facilitate the management of economic resources, and 13% for coordination actions. Sixty-two percent of the approved standards were set for the regional level, 22% for the national level, 7% for the municipal level, and the remaining 10% corresponded with more than 1 level of government.

The actions during and after the El Niño coastal phenomenon required the approval of standards included in the legal framework of Peru’s disaster risk management, as well as a large number of unforeseen standards to address existing regulatory gaps and specific problems that occurred during this natural disaster.