(CNN) Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Tuesday that some parts of the overall response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico were not present, but his team did a "phenomenal job" despite harsh criticisms the agency received.

Speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce Foundation event in Washington, DC, Long talked about the four "legs" that support an emergency management response during a natural disaster: federal government, state and local government, the private sector and the citizens.

In Puerto Rico, Long said that not all four of those legs were present.

"Going into other areas, like Puerto Rico, there was only one leg that was present and that's the fact, and that's the reality," Long said. "That's not a complaint, but it's what we've got to overcome in lessons learned from 2017 and going forward. We've got to figure out how to build better baseline capabilities at all levels of government."

Long did not specify which leg he thought was present in the response in Puerto Rico or which legs he thought were missing.

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