From CNN: FEMA will provide millions in flood assistance funds to 4 states affected by Hurricane Ida. This is aimed at the 4 states with the most recurring floods.

FEMA Announces 90/10 cost Share Adjustment.  FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced on March 18 that additional disaster funding is available to all states, tribal nations and territories with Presidential major disaster and emergency declarations occurring in 2020 and 2021.

On March 15, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed “H.R. 2471, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022” into law, which granted a minimum 90% federal cost share for any emergency or major disaster declaration declared occurring or having an incident period beginning between, Jan.1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021.

Thanks to Jerry Quinn for this citation.

From CNN: Here’s why the US has more tornadoes than any other country

From FL International University: NSF awards grant to College of Engineering to help improve disaster management and pandemic recovery

From USA Today: Insurance and Aid are Not Covering the Costs of Disasters in the US. Should we Move?

Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.

From the Miami Herald: New U.S. sea rise projections are lower but still forecast grim future for Florida. Thanks to John Plodinec for the citation.

As of March 14, see this article in the Wash Post: Opinion: Why climate resilience strategies won’t save Florida

From HSToday: Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Building a More Resilient U.S. Healthcare System. The COVID-19 crisis taught us that we rely too heavily on foreign countries for medical supplies and pharmaceutical components.

From HSDL: Ready or Not: Public Health and Emergency Preparedness. The Trust for America’s Health has released its latest report in an annual series on public health emergency preparedness in America: Ready or Not 2022: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism.

The report assesses and tracks the public health preparedness of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each state is grouped into one of three tiers based on the “10 Top-Priority Indicators of State Public Health Preparedness,” which includes factors such as  community water system safety, flu vaccination rates, and patient safety in hospitals. Overall, 17 states and the District of Columbia were placed in the highest tier, 20 scored in the middle tier, and 13 scored in the lowest.

Also included in this year’s report, a special section examining the nation’s preparedness as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons of the Pandemic’s Tragic Death Toll: What Needs to be Done to Save Lives During the Next Public Health Emergency?

Given the current concerns about the humanitarian needs of people, this is a good time to mention the subject of disaster philanthropy. One of the important organizations in the U.S. is the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

Here is a nice example of disaster philanthropy: 10M gift to aid extreme weather research at UMass. Thanks to Wendy Foxmyn for sending me the citation.

FEMA flood maps underestimate damage risks, according to NC State research

New research out of N.C. State University shows the state and nation could be underestimating flood damage risk. Researchers from the university’s Center for Geospatial Analytics used artificial intelligence to predict where flooding is likely to happen. Researchers used data from actual flooding events, as well as information about distance to a river or stream, type of soil, and precipitation, to build the computer models, which in turn made predictions about flooding.

NIST Offers First-of-a-Kind Guidance for Holistic Home and Community Wildfire Protection. The authors of the report compiled methods to protect against wildfires’ two main weapons of choice: flames and airborne pieces of burning debris.