Climate Disasters
70% of Southerners live in counties that have experienced disasters in the last two years, compared to 57% of non-Southerners.
Number of FEMA county disaster declarations
Mar 1, 2020 - Mar 31, 2022
Source: FEMA. Notes: Excludes COVID declarations and statewide declarations.
Climate disasters have compounded the nation’s misery since the pandemic struck. 70% of Southerners live in a county that has had a disaster since March 2020 compared to 57% of non-Southerners. Many Americans have experienced more than one disaster in that short time frame. In Louisiana, every county (parish) has experienced 12 or more FEMA-declared disasters since March 2020.
The map above depicts the number of county-level disaster declarations including hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes, levee breaks, landslides, earthquakes, severe ice storms, and other severe storms. (Although Covid was a declared FEMA disaster, it is excluded from this analysis.)
From 1980 to 2020, the U.S. averaged 7 climate disasters per year that caused a billion dollars in damages.1 Yet, in 2021, there were 20 such large-scale disasters.2 In 2020 and 2021, federal spending on Disaster Relief more than doubled compared to 2018 or 2019.3 But the time- and document-intensive FEMA application process has been shown to increase inequity because it is too burdensome for smaller/rural municipalities and people with low-incomes.4 Moreover, housing prices increase after disasters5 and, as such, will likely contribute to increased housing insecurity in many Southern communities going forward (Severe Housing Cost Burden).
“2020 U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in historical context”. Smith. Climate.gov. January, 2021. https://www.climate.gov/disasters2020
“Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview”. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/
“Disaster Relief Fund, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security”. USASpending.Gov. https://www.usaspending.gov/federal_account/070-0702
“As Disaster Costs Rise, So Does Inequality. Howell, Elliott. Sage Journals. December, 2018. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118816795
“Natural Disasters and Housing Markets. The Tenure Choice Channel”. Dillon-Merrill, Ge, and Gete. December, 2018. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2019/preliminary/paper/YZ56fSb6