NPR: Rethinking Disaster Recovery After A California Town Is Leveled By Wildfire

Months after the devastating Camp Fire in Paradise, California, over seven thousand residents are relying on direct federal aid, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In the United States, spending on public assistance grants has been very high for the past five years and is expected to increase. Preparedness advisers believe that current disaster recovery plans, based on cleaning up debris and rebuilding, are ineffective and too reactionary. They call for more pre-disaster reforms, based on adapting communities to volatile climate conditions and revamping infrastructure. However, current state spendings on natural disasters are highly variable while national spending on pre-disaster mitigation only amounts to about $300 million per year which is roughly six percent of FEMA’s yearly budget.

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