From the Sierra Club magazine: The Case for Climate Reparations. Who should pay the costs for climate-change-related disasters?
Who Should Pay the Cost of Unnatural Disasters?
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Author Archives: recoverydiva
NPR on FEMA’s Failure re Puerto Rico
From National Public Radio (5/1/18): How FEMA Failed to Help Victims of Hurricanes in Puerto Rico Recover.
Also on 5/1, the Public Television show Frontline did a program titled The Blackout in Puerto Rico.
Update: My fellow blogger, Eric Holdeman also posted comments about these citations, and ends with a worthy warning:
Thus, when people point the finger at Mike Byrne [federal coordinating officer] and FEMA, remember that three fingers are pointing back at you and others. You own a portion of this failure to have a national culture of preparedness and community resilience.
Warning re Biothreats
From HSToday: U.S. ‘A Lot More Fragile Than We Realize’ on Biothreats, Experts Warn. “The nation is critically underprepared to confront transnational biological threats ranging from DIY bioterror agents to natural pathogens that outpace current pharmaceuticals and overwhelm medical facilities, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense heard at a Wednesday event at the Hudson Institute.”
From the NY Times: Inside the secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack
In Puerto Rico, Struggles of All Stripes
From the Wash Post, this article which they gave two different titles to: The Struggle to Recovery From H. Maria Reignites Calls for PR Statehood, Independence.
East vs. West Coast Earthquakes
New report from the USGS: East vs. West Coast Earthquakes
Thanks to Eric Holdeman for the citation.
Components of Recovery Funding
From the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, this blog posting by Robert G. Ottenhoff: The Complicated Web of Disaster Funding and What You Can Do About It,
Why does CDP emphasize that philanthropic support for disaster activities needs to be strategic? The answer is simple: there isn’t very much of it, relative to the need, and it is absolutely essential.
“Climate Gentrification”
From Bloomberg News: The latest Climate Threat for Coastal Cities – More Rich People.
Around the country, the government’s response to extreme weather is pushing lower-income people like the Barons away from the coast, often in the name of safety. Housing experts, economists and activists have coined the term “climate gentrification.”
Disaster Insurance
From Bloomberg News: Disasters Are Costing Us More. Why Aren’t We Insuring More? Climate change and our insistence on building in high-risk areas may force us to reconsider whether our losses are natural or man-made.
Last year was the second-costliest year for disasters since 1970, according to a new analysis from reinsurance firm Swiss Re AG. Global economic losses from these events reached $337 billion in 2017, behind only 2011’s total losses, and less than 40 percent were insured. A close look at Swiss Re’s data reveals several worrying trends. Losses from natural and man-made disasters are increasing, markets are not getting better at insuring them, and our own choices aren’t helping.
NEW GAO Report on FEMA Grants Management
National Preparedness: FEMA Has Taken Steps to Strengthen Grant Management, But Challenges Remain in Assessing Capabilities.
In February 2012, GAO identified coordination challenges among Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs that share similar goals and fund similar projects, which contribute to the risk of duplication among the programs. GAO recommended that FEMA take steps, as it develops its new grant management system, to collect project information with sufficient detail to identify potential duplication among the grant programs. FEMA has since addressed these recommendations. Specifically, in 2014, FEMA modified a legacy grants data system to capture more robust grant project-level data, and in fiscal year 2017, procured a software tool and developed a set of standard operating procedures to assist its staff in identifying potentially duplicative projects. These actions should help FEMA strengthen the administration and oversight of its grant programs. Furthermore, FEMA is also developing a new grants management modernization system to consolidate and better manage its grants. GAO is currently reviewing the system for this Committee and will report out next year.
Housing Option Ignored by FEMA in FL
From the Orlando Sentinel: FEMA Ignores Housing Option for Displaced Families. At issue is HUD’s Disaster Housing Assistance Program. Here are some details:
DHAP could provide temporary rental assistance and wrap-around case management to low-income families in need, helping them find permanent housing solutions, secure employment, and connect to public benefits as they rebuild their lives. The program was developed after hard-won lessons from Hurricane Katrina, and has been used successfully after Hurricanes Rita, Gustav and Ike and Superstorm Sandy. After previous storms, steps were taken to stand up DHAP as quickly as two weeks after a disaster. Both the Bush and Obama administrations recognized DHAP as a best practice after disasters.
The Trump administration, unfortunately, is instead either relying on failed responses from previous storms that led to the need to create DHAP in the first place or trying new ineffective pilot programs. Administrator Brock Long testified last week before Congress that he favored shifting responsibilities for disaster housing recovery from the federal government onto the states and Puerto Rico. But the state-run disaster housing programs put in place as an alternative to DHAP have been plagued by significant delays. Fewer than 320 households in Florida and 150 households in Texas are in the pipeline to receive state housing assistance. FEMA’s experiment has fallen woefully short.
Recovery Diva 