From the Wash Post: Trump admin rejects emergency aid for California fires, including biggest blaze in state history.

“Fueled by extreme heat and tinder-dry conditions, wildfires exploded across California in September, blazing through almost 1.9 million acres, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and killing at least three people. One wildfire, the Creek Fire, became the largest single blaze in California history and grew so fierce it spun up fire tornadoes with 125 mph winds.

But the Trump administration this week refused to grant an emergency declaration that would open up hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for areas devastated in those fires, California state officials confirmed to The Washington Post early on Friday.

It’s unclear why the request was denied, when similar declarations were granted earlier this year for other wildfires. President Trump has previously threatened to withhold emergency fire aid to California over disputed claims that the state isn’t doing enough to prevent wildfires.”

National Emergency Powers. CRS has just issued this 25 page document on National Emergency Powers

From the Atlantic Council: How to Build A Resilient America

From the UNDRR, this 30 page report: The human cost of disasters: an overview of the last 20 years (2000-2019)

UNDRR report published to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, 2020, confirms how extreme weather events have come to dominate the disaster landscape in the 21^st century. The statistics in this report are from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) which records disasters which have killed ten or more people; affected 100 or more people; resulted in a declared state of emergency; or a call for international assistance.

In the period 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major recorded disaster events claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many on more than one occasion) resulting in approximately US$2.97 trillion in global economic losses. 

This is a sharp increase over the previous twenty years. Between 1980 and 1999, 4,212 disasters were linked to natural hazards worldwide claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and affecting 3.25 billion people resulting in approximately US$1.63 trillion in economic losses.

From Politico: California thought it could delay climate disaster. Now millions of acres are burning. Some excerpts follow:

California tried harder than any state to fight climate change. Two governors imposed a groundbreaking emissions cap-and-trade system while state regulators forced American automakers to build more efficient cars.

None of those policies kept California from becoming the poster child for what climate change really looks like.

Ravaged by deadly fires, drought, dry lightning and heat waves that make the ground sizzle and lamps dim, the nation’s most populous state now seems incapable of protecting itself from a global catastrophe. The urgency has forced California to consider diverting more time and resources away from reducing its carbon footprint to thwarting the immediate impacts of climate change.

The Action Collaborative on Disaster Research Webinar 1: Back to the Future – Moving the Nation’s Disaster Research Capacity Forward

From Bloomberg: A Coronavirus Commission Is Crucial for America’s Recovery. “An investigation of the pandemic should include scientists, doctors and — gasp! — a Big Pharma executive.”

How does FEMA help people recover from major disasters? 
Source: WatchBlog,The Official Blog of the U.S. Government Accountability Office

DHS Assesses Threats to National Security

DHS has published a comprehensive report on threats to American security. The October 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA) is specifically intended for public consumption, and factors in all of the new challenges DHS faces in light of the COVID-19 (coronavirus 2019) pandemic. The inaugural report arranges the topmost threats to America in seven sections.

Note that natural disasters are #7.

California’s largest wildfire on record is now a million-acre “gigafire”
The August Complex Fire in Northern California has now burned an area larger than Rhode Island.