Five Disasters

[Joslyn Moreci]

Forlarger disasters, Congress has frequently authorized additional funding for neighborhood revitalization and housing reconstruction and rehabilitation through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. Yet CDBG-DR appropriations are intermittent, and the overall timeframe from disaster to grant closeout varies widely. Legislation working its way through Congress would reform this process, permanently authorizing the CDBG-DR program and, ideally, reducing the time between disaster and reconstruction.

Last week, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released an Urban Institute report that examines the CDBG-DR program to uncover patterns in the pace of recovery across a sample of 88 grants for disasters from 2005 to 2015. Five facts emerged from our research that can inform efforts to improve federal disaster recovery:

Most FEMA assistance ends after 18 months, if not earlier. At that point, the average CDBG-DR housing activity has yet to spend its first dollar. We found that the average CDBG-DR housing activity started distributing funds 20 months after the disaster and was still distributing funds two years after that.

This gap between FEMA and CDBG-DR assistance can be devastating to families trying to pay rent for one home while struggling to rebuild another. This might explain why the financial health of many people affected by disasters continued to decline into the third or fourth year after a disaster. Low-income households without robust safety nets are hit especially hard during these gaps.

We also found significant variation in timing based on program type. Programs making relocation payments and direct compensation to homeowners progressed more quickly, while home rehabilitation and the construction of new housing took longer. Even after accounting for local factors, homeownership assistance programs progressed at the slowest pace.

Disaster declarations do not immediately obligate funds for CDBG-DR grants in HUD. Congress can appropriate disaster relief funds, including CDBG-DR, on any schedule. Sometimes funding occurs within weeks of an event, such as for Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. But in other cases, months or years may pass between appropriations, meaning that some communities wait years before receiving funds.

How quickly state and local grantees can help individual households largely depends on how quickly they can set up their programs. But setting up programs too fast could produce less-than-ideal programs with confusing eligibility, intake, and aid delivery that could change later in the process.

The Urban Institute podcast, Evidence in Action, inspires changemakers to lead with evidence and act with equity. Cohosted by Urban President Sarah Rosen Wartell and Executive Vice President Kimberlyn Leary, every episode features in-depth discussions with experts and leaders on topics ranging from how to advance equity, to designing innovative solutions that achieve community impact, to what it means to practice evidence-based leadership.

The last year alone has seen a series of devastating climate disasters in various parts of the world such as Cyclone Idai, deadly heatwaves in India, Pakistan, and Europe, and flooding in south-east Asia. From Mozambique to Bangladesh millions of people have already lost their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones as a result of more dangerous and more frequent extreme weather events.

Simply put, changes in the global climate exacerbate climate hazards and amplify the risk of extreme weather disasters. Increases of air and water temperatures lead to rising sea levels, supercharged storms and higher wind speeds, more intense and prolonged droughts and wildfire seasons, heavier precipitation and flooding. The evidence is overwhelming and the results devastating:

In March 2019, Cyclone Idai took the lives of more than 1000 people across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique in Southern Africa, and it devastated millions more who were left destitute without food or basic services. Lethal landslides took homes and destroyed land, crops and infrastructure. Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks later, sweeping through northern Mozambique, hitting areas where no tropical cyclone has been observed since the satellite era. (Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Oxfam)

Higher sea temperatures, linked to climate change, have doubled the likelihood of drought in the Horn of Africa region. Severe droughts in 2011, 2017 and 2019 have repeatedly wiped out crops and livestock. Droughts have left 15 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in need of aid, yet the aid effort is only 35 percent funded. People have been left without the means to put food on their table, and have been forced from their homes. Millions of people are facing acute food and water shortages. (Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam)

Extreme weather disasters affect all countries, rich and poor. But as we face a future with enhanced risks, it is critical to face the reality of those who bear the burden of our changing climate. For Oxfam, this is an issue of justice: those living in poverty are the hardest hit by climate change despite being the least responsible for the crisis.

Climate change is forcing people from their homes, bringing poverty on top of poverty and increasing hunger. People in poorer countries are at least four times more likely to be displaced by extreme weather than people in rich countries.

Emergency management, also referred to as disaster management, means preparing for potential calamities and responding to them as quickly, strategically and effectively as possible. Typically, this involves following the basic disaster management cycle, which comprises five crucial stages.

Effective and ethical leadership during a disaster requires a number of essential skills. One of the best ways to hone them is through enrollment in an online leadership and management program, whether that means pursuing a full degree or a certificate program.

One of the biggest challenges of disaster, or emergency, management is the need to be prepared for a wide range of contingencies. A good place to begin a discussion of disaster management is by considering what constitutes a disaster.

There were 10 weather and climate-related disasters each exceeding $1 billion in losses in the U.S. within the first half of 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The number of disasters resulting in billion-dollar loses has been steadily rising, from 29 disasters in the 1980s to 119 disasters in the 2010s. In addition to this increase, cascading disasters, such as a hurricane during the COVID-19 pandemic, reinforce the need for effective and ethical leadership across all sectors and levels of government.

When properly implemented, the disaster-management cycle can lessen the impact of a catastrophic event. It can also incorporate the policies and emergency responses needed for a full, expedited recovery. The cycle involves the following five stages:

Ideally, the disaster-management leader will coordinate the use of resources (including personnel, supplies and equipment) to help restore personal and environmental safety, as well as to minimize the risk of any additional property damage.

During the response stage, any ongoing hazards are removed from the area; for example, in the aftermath of a wildfire, any lingering fires will be put out, and areas that pose a high flammability risk will be stabilized.

The fifth stage in the disaster-management cycle is recovery. This can take a long time, sometimes years or decades. For example, some areas in New Orleans have yet to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It involves stabilizing the area and restoring all essential community functions. Recovery requires prioritization: first, essential services like food, clean water, utilities, transportation and healthcare will be restored, with less-essential services being prioritized later.

During the prevention stage, strong analytical skills help leaders identify potential threats, hazards and high-risk areas. Problem-solving abilities are also invaluable in identifying the best ways to avoid or diminish the likelihood of catastrophic events.

Planning is an important skill during the mitigation stage; the disaster-management leader will need to develop strategies and structural changes that can help mediate potential threats. Spreading awareness is also critical, as community members must be made aware of the steps they can take to prepare for all contingencies.

As disaster-management leaders help their communities recover, the most essential skills are empathy, understanding and relationship building; indeed, without earning the trust of the community, any recovery efforts are likely to come up short.

The COVID-19 pandemic has really brought this home, as many business owners have confronted the crisis at hand. To ensure the safety of customers as well as employees, business leaders have shifted to remote work environments, implemented new communication infrastructures, and embraced new standards of office hygiene and sanitization. While no business leader could have precisely predicted the effects of the coronavirus, those companies that had some disaster plan in place are likely a step or two ahead of others.

Through the University of Central Florida, students can engage in dynamic courses that help them feel fully prepared to prevent, mitigate and respond to major disasters, successfully limiting damage to property, the environment and people.

The Urban Institute partnered with the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service to explore the chain of disaster recovery and data collection to identify areas where people might get left behind. Click on the headers below to read about problems in each step of the disaster recovery and data supply chain and about ways to strengthen the recovery process.

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