Federal Community-Resilience Investments Swamped by Disaster Damages

Seven months after the second most costly hurricane in history, Mayor Bloomberg proposed investing $19.5 billion to make his city much more resilient to future extreme weather events. More than one-quarter of these resources will come from federal funds included in the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, which provides aid to New York, New Jersey, and other affected states to help them recover from Superstorm Sandy. New Jersey is also investing significant portions of its Superstorm Sandy federal aid in resilience efforts, particularly along the Jersey Shore. These investments will make New York and New Jersey homes, businesses, infrastructure, and coastal areas more resistant to damage from future storms, sea-level rise, and other climate-change impacts.

Unlike New York City and New Jersey, many communities lack the financial resources to become more resilient to future extreme weather events, and the federal government woefully underfunds such resilience needs. This CAP analysis estimates that the federal government spent a total of only $22 billion on general resilience efforts from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2013. The Obama administration requested an additional $13 billion for mitigation efforts in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York after Superstorm Sandy, but it is difficult to determine the actual mitigation spending from this sum. The federal government does not have a comprehensive tally of its spending for community resilience and other pre-disaster mitigation programs.

A previous CAP analysis estimated that the federal government spent $136 billion — or nearly $400 per household annually — on disaster relief and recovery from FY 2011 through FY 2013. Based on those indoor positioning system, federal taxpayers spent nearly $6 for disaster recovery for every $1 spent to increase general community resilience over the past three years.

We must help communities enhance their ability to withstand the high winds, flood waters, scorching heat, searing wild fires, and parched earth from extreme weather. Every $1 invested in such “pre-disaster mitigation,” or resilience measures — which help communities withstand the effects of extreme weather — reduce the cost of damage from these extreme weather events by $4, according to a study for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The severe, extreme weather during the past two years exacted a significant human and economic toll. From the start of 2011 through the end of 2012, there were 25 extreme weather events that caused at least $1 billion each in damage, with a total tab for destruction of $188 billion and 1,100 fatalities.

Although extreme weather continues in 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has yet to identify any $1 billion damage events this year. Insurance broker AON Benfield estimates, however, that there were three weather events that each caused at least $1 billion in economic losses thus far this year. The costliest of these events were the Oklahoma tornados, which caused 24 fatalities in mid-May and an estimated $5 billion in damages. Extreme weather will likely continue throughout 2013. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an “active or extremely active [hurricane] season this year… [that is] well above the seasonal average.”

The New York Times additionally reports that, “just over 44 percent of the country remains in drought.” NOAA predicts a continued persistent drought this summer through most of the southwestern United States. This could lead to significant economic damage from wildfires, as well as continued harm to the farm economy.

Mitigation means adapting buildings, infrastructure, and natural systems that will allow communities to better withstand high winds and rain, ocean storm surge, unusually high temperatures, wild fires, and drought.

The technologies needed to accomplish this goal vary in cost and complexity. The St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, for instance, was essentially destroyed by a tornado in 2011 and has been rebuilt with a tornado-proof design that includes windows that can resist winds of up to 250 miles per hour at a cost of $170 per square foot — $70 more per square foot than standard windows. The cost of including a safe room designed to protect people from tornados in the construction of a new home can cost $8,000, and it costs about $10,000 to add to an existing home.

Several coastal Texas cities that are vulnerable to hurricanes recently invested in community shelters to protect their residents. Edna, Texas, built a $2.5 million hurricane shelter large enough to shield the town’s 5,500 residents from winds up to 300 miles per hour. The shelter also doubles as a high-school gymnasium. FEMA paid for 75 percent of it, and it plans to invest $683 million in similar shelters in 18 other states.

New York and New Jersey are buying out homeowners with severely damaged homes located in flood-prone areas using federal funds provided under the Disaster Relief Act. This resilience measure is expensive and something many coastal communities cannot afford to undertake on their own.

Many communities lack the resources to invest in projects that would protect their structures and inhabitants from major storms. Superstorm Sandy, for instance, damaged two-thirds of the downtown homes and businesses in Highlands, New Jersey. Local officials there told NBC News that they had previously considered resilience measures — such as raising the height of the town — but that construction costs were prohibitively expensive.

A similar lack of financial resources prevented other communities from adequately investing in resilience. In the wake of the tornados in Moore, Oklahoma, The New York Times reported that, “only about 10 percent of homes in Moore” had storm-safe rooms or underground shelters. And The Wall St. Journal reported that efforts to build safe rooms in local schools were also limited by the lack of federal assistance. According to The Journal, “Local officials said Tuesday [May 21, 2013] that about 100 schools in the state are equipped with safe rooms that were built with federal funds. The money had dried up in past years, officials said, and many schools were on a waiting list.”

Joplin, Missouri, which was flattened in 2011 by the deadliest tornado since 1950, had previously applied for FEMA funds to build safe rooms. The New York Times reported that the “state used money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency primarily for disaster relief from flooding.”

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