The Biden administration said it would spend $1 billion to help communities prepare for worsening disasters, the latest sign of the toll that climate change is already taking across the United States.
The move comes after President Joe Biden made a visit to FEMA headquarters on Friday to get an update on the coming Atlantic Hurricane season, reports CNBC News.
“Now is the time to get ready for the busiest time of the year for disasters in America,” Biden said following the briefing. “Hurricane season in the South and East, and the fire season out West.”
“We all know that the storms are coming, and we’re going to be prepared,” he added. “We have to be ready.”
The White House is doubling FEMA funding from $500 million a year to $1 billion a year and yet, according to some disaster experts, more funding is needed because the warming planet is making storms, flooding, wildfires, and other disasters both more frequent and destructive, according to Finance & Commerce.
In 2020, the United States experienced 22 extreme disaster events, primarily wildfires, hurricanes and snowstorms, that exceeded $1 billion in damages for each event.
Based on the formula that determines funding would have allowed the administration to put as much as $3.7 billion toward the program, which FEMA officials considered in the early days of Biden’s administration.
According to Craig Fugate, who led FEMA under President Barack Obama and led Biden’s transition team, states and communities could have difficulties spending that much money on climate resiliancy projects.
“It’s a good start,” Fugate said of the new money announced Monday. He called the $1 billion in total funds “a huge number for pre-disaster mitigation.”
Daniel Kaniewski, FEMA’s deputy administrator for resilience in the Trump administration, called the program “a down payment to reduce future disaster impacts.”
The new funds will be distributed by FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. BRIC was created in 2018 as a way to award grants to states, local communities, and tribes to undertake pre-disaster hazard mitigation projects.
President Biden ended his briefing at FEMA by saying: “As my mother would say, they’re doing God’s work. Today, today’s briefing is a critical reminder, we don’t have a moment to lose in preparing for 2021. And so, again, I want to thank you for all that you do. And I’m looking forward to hearing from you all.”