From Forbes: 6 Lessons From FEMA’s Response To Thousands Of Crisis Situations

Some practical advice, much of it provided by a former FEMA executive Cliff Oliver.

From NBC News: Rare 4.8 earthquake offers ‘teachable moments’ for preparing for worse disasters.

From CNN: Norfolk Southern reaches $600 million settlement to settle East Palestine derailment suit

From the WashPost: An ‘extremely active’ hurricane season is headed our way, experts warn. A key preseason hurricane forecast predicts nearly two dozen tropical storms, including 11 hurricanes, posing heightened threats to U.S. coastline

Article from The Hill, written by a former FEMA employee: FEMA’s turning 45. It needs to change to keep meeting its mission.

FEMA’s turning 45. It needs to change to keep meeting its mission.

From Newsweek: Florida’s Insurance Crisis Just Got Worse
Florida’s insurance saga is deepening as more than 115,000 homeowners in the southwest portion of the state, still reeling from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian in 2022, are facing new challenges with a 25 percent increase in flood insurance rates.

The rate hike, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is attributed to local officials reportedly allowing substandard rebuilding efforts, failing to meet the stringent federal standards required for flood-damaged homes.

The latest development is part of a broader, intensifying crisis within the state’s insurance sector, highlighted by escalating premiums, an exodus of insurers, and widespread dissatisfaction among policyholders over claim settlements. With FEMA penalizing Lee County for its laxity in enforcing rebuilding codes, residents are caught in a tug-of-war between striving for recovery and navigating the “punitive” measures of federal oversight.

From the Congressional Research Service: Emergency Relief Program for Disaster-
Damaged Highways and Bridges (25 pp)

From HSNewswire: Proactively Planning for Community Relocation Before and After Climate Disasters.

“Between 1980 and mid-2023, 232 billion-dollar disasters occurred in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, with the number of disasters doubling annually since 2018. As the frequency, intensity, and destructiveness of climate change-driven disasters increase, accompanied by an increase in recovery costs, more experts are calling for a managed retreat of entire communities from disaster-prone areas to safer ground.”

See also this earlier article on the topic: Planning for Disaster-Induced Relocation of Communities, by Balakrishnan Balachandran,Robert B. Olshansky, & Laurie A. Johnson
Published online: 24 Nov 2021. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944363.2021.1978855

From HSToday: FEMA Administrator Calls for Collaboration in Building a Resilient Nation at National Emergency Management Association Conference. An excerpt:

“From the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 to the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of emergency management has evolved through the decades. Emergency managers are called upon to respond to more and more incidents and a variety of natural and man-made hazards. The profession is no longer expected to just pick up the pieces; emergency mangers are expected to be there before, during and after disaster strikes.”