Climate Disasters
68% of Southerners have experienced a climate-related disaster since March 2020 compared to 55% of non-Southerners
Number of FEMA disaster declarations by county
Mar 1, 2020 - Sep 14, 2021
Source: FEMA. Notes: Excludes COVID declarations.
Climate disasters have compounded the nation’s misery since the pandemic struck. 58% of Americans live in a county that has had a disaster since March 2020. Disasters have been most frequent in the South such that 68% of Southerners have experienced a disaster over the last 18 months compared to 55% of non-Southerners.
Moreover, many Southern counties have experienced more than one disaster. Louisiana has experienced the most disasters with every county in the state having more than 10 FEMA disaster declarations since March 2020. The map above depicts the number of disaster declarations per county that include hurricanes, severe ice storms, other severe storms, fires, floods, tornadoes, levee breaks, landslides, and earthquakes. (Although Covid was a declared FEMA disaster, it is excluded from this analysis.) As of October 8, there have been 18 climate disasters causing at least a billion dollars in damages in 2021, up from an average of 7.1 events annually from 1980 to 2020.1 Local governments are rarely well-equipped to respond to human needs for housing, transportation, and mental health services that last for months after such large scale disasters.2 Disasters have been shown to increase inequity: low-income housing is more likely to be located in vulnerable areas and may be less well constructed; people in low-income jobs often don't have the savings needed to evacuate or rebuild; and the time- and document-intensive FEMA application process can be too burdensome for smaller/rural municipalities and people with low-incomes.3 At the same time, federal disaster bailouts disincentivize financial markets from investing in resilient infrastructure and housing.4 Strategic investments in climate resilience will be needed to keep state economies moving forward.
1. “Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview”. NOAA. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/
2. “DISASTERS & EQUITY.” The Southern Economic Advancement Project. July, 2020. Gehl, Dzigbede, and Willoughby. https://theseap.org/wp-content/uploads/SEAP-Natural-Disaster-Brief.pdf
3. “As Disaster Costs Rise, So Does Inequality. Howell, Elliott. Sage Journals. December, 2018. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118816795
4. “Are federal disaster policies making the harmful impacts of climate change even worse?” Frank, Gesick, and Victor. Brookings. March, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/planetpolicy/2021/03/26/are-federal-disaster-policies-making-the-harmful-impactsof-climate-change-even-worse/