The U.S. won't be prepared for the next natural disaster

In the US, according to Patrick Roberts, an associate professor at Virginia Tech and author of the book Disasters and the American State, there needs to be a shift in focus. Roberts believes too much pressure and reliance is put on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), when resources and preparation should start at the state and local levels.

When the responsibility falls to federal agencies, or even when people look to the president during disasters, Roberts says there’s no accountability in the localities where response and preparation efforts take place.

The challenge for the nation, then, is to find ways to incentivize cash-strapped cities to front the finances for risk mitigation. For wealthier states with strong agencies like California, it might be feasible, but others may struggle.

Congress has worked to lighten the burden, recently passing measures to encourage investment into preparation plans. An additional $149m over the previous year’s $100m was appropriated in 2018 for risk mitigation and Fema launched its “Mitigation Moonshots” program which aims for fourfold investment increases across state local and federal agencies by 2023. In October, Donald Trump signed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, a bill that sets aside 6% of disaster funding for public infrastructure hazard mitigation and contains dozens of provisions aimed at streamlining shared recovery responsibilities and increasing capacity to handle catastrophic events around the country.

But it’s been difficult to get states to stick to their own plans.

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