FEMA has $20B in disaster recovery funding. Extreme weather means that’s not nearly enough. Bottom line, we’re spending way more than we realize on natural disasters. Perhaps if we knew the real cost, we might think hard about making communities more resilient.

We are inside of 2 weeks since Hurricane Helene. Having seen that storm firsthand - and participating in recovery - I bore witness to multiple systems failures that contributed to the scale of the devastation. This storm proved my theory that power and data systems are as critical as roads and bridges. Infrastructure is being redefined and we need to recognize dependencies and build in resilience.

Design MUST include performance. Without performance requirements, we can’t measure how something does when it matters the most. Sustainable design needs to incorporate full life-cycle science into the essence of the project. We can’t continue to use traditional project management methods and select ‘green’ products that help us achieve certification. The design process is the most critical path to building performance standards and we need to get better at it.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA didn’t have enough money in the Disaster Relief Fund. There are currently hundreds of employees deployed in North Carolina (along with 1000’s of Federal workers) and they’re struggling with a shortage of employees to respond to Florida. Catastrophic climate events are happening at an increasing rate and with increasing severity, and the disaster recovery agency wasn’t designed for the reality of climate change.

Rate and type of change

In 2023, we had 28 major weather and climate disasters in the US causing $92.9B in damage. In the 1980’s there were fewer than 8 per year. (source) The amount of money in the Disaster Relief Fund, coupled with insurance policy exclusions and the TYPE of damage equates to a system failure. $20B doesn’t go very far when it has to support aging roads and bridges, complex power and data grids, rising sea levels, compounding water vapor, trade labor shortage, supply chain interruption, and rising construction costs. Remember, we’re battling drought, wildfires, floods, and storms.

Hurricanes are more intense. Wildfires burn longer and hotter. Extreme heat waves last longer. Drought conditions persist. Global warming is correlated to precipitation intensity and totals. Sea level rise contributes to floods. Winter storms hit harder.

Numbers aren’t numbers

Beyond the measure of direct damage are numbers that can be described as fuzzy at best. The reason behind that is still unclear to me - but the method by which we deploy financial resources is clear: frequently and recklessly. We will never know the real numbers because we aren’t capturing the real spending. No politics, facts.

The $20B that is ‘budgeted’ in the Disaster Relief Fund is seed money. The ‘real’ money is spent after the damage is already done. Studies suggest that every dollar that is spent to make a community more resilient - better construction and infrastructure, better land use and zoning, better planning, and other investments - can save the community $13 in return when a disaster hits. There is evidence of this - but it’s hard to find and you have to squint to find towns and municipalities who have fully embraced it.

FEMA has a BRIC program that focuses on risk mitigation. This is a proactive program that puts avoidance at the front of the intended result. Things like managing fuel, securing drinking water, improving evacuation routes, improving flood plains, requiring building science metrics, dependency awareness programs, and improving utility distribution systems all help to mitigate risk.

A little closer to home for me is a program called Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies ARC Arise. My research and desire to create a resilient fund of patient capital that focuses on investments in attainable-sustainable and progressive workforce housing has led me to their work. My focus is currently in Southwestern Virginia, Northeastern Tennessee, and Northwestern North Carolina - an area that was impacted heavily by #Helene. Supply chain infrastructure such as rail and interstate, coupled with reasonable land cost and a deeply depressed labor market has contributed to my decision to focus on this section of Appalachia. It is ripe for responsible transition investments. Here are some additional groups and resources that I hope to become more familiar with: Central Appalachian Network, Opportunity Appalachia, West Virgina Development Office, and Rural Development Innovation Group.

The resources are there

At the Federal level, we see programs like the Community Reinvestment Act, BankOn, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, and Executive Orders of the President of the United States like Justice 40. At the core of these programs is education, access, and awareness. They aim to tackle WICKED problems like Climate Change, Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Clean Transit, Affordable and Sustainable Housing, Training and Workforce Development, Rediation and Reduction of Legacy Pollution, and Development of Critical Clean Water and Wastewater Infrastructure. This line of thinking requires proper literacy and a common language.

❌ We can’t keep rebuilding the same buildings in the same places.

❌ We can’t keep supporting legacy systems that take more resources than they give.

❌ We can’t keep accepting catastrophic events as unique or novel.

❌ We can’t keep accepting exclusions in policies.

❌ We can’t keep educating in silos around specialties.

✔ We can create a common literacy around responsible design and construction.

✔ We can create a better curriculum that promotes and informs resilient practice.

✔ We can create accountability in zoning and planning.

✔ We can change the ROI models of transition investments to include patient capital.

✔ We can promote and practice being pro-business and pro-planet simultaneously.

So now what

To make all this work, it’s going to take three things:

Synergy

Energy

Accountability

We have to pull government, higher ed, private development, NGO’s, communities, entrepreneurs, and corporations together.

The roads will be cleared. The power will be restored. The debris piles will be removed….and the people of these communities will be left with the clean-up and the bills. As I wrote in a recent post, “They is us.” We are the first and last responders and perhaps we should consider a new approach that includes concepts like avoidance, resilience, and awareness. There is no waiting. The programs that support these efforts are in place. Just as open industry was left to create research and development opportunities in post-war times…..free market economics allow us to make transition investments in open innovation and resilient design now. We can demystify and deflate politically charged words and simply do the right thing. Nothing is stopping us except us.

If the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, let’s go shoe shopping. I’m gonna buy work boots.

#tinygiants is a group being formed on LinkedIn. The premise of the group is pretty simple: Positive Actions + Consistency + Time = Compounding Results. I am recruiting an army of #tinygiants.

This entry’s song pair is Shine

Photo by Isaac Quesada on Unsplash