The Mitigation Funding Drought

This week, seven major disaster declarations were approved for disasters that recently struck US communities. The approval means those impacted communities have been awarded federal resources and funding for recovery efforts. That’s great news.

The bad news is, according to OPB, “None of the approvals made this week includes hazard mitigation funding, a once-typical add-on to disaster declaration support that helped communities build back with more resilience.”

And it’s not just these seven declarations that didn’t get the add-on. Across the nation, not a single disaster declaration mitigation funding request has been approved in more than 13 months. That’s a huge deal. It speaks of a devastating trend.

Wildfires

We can’t stop the lightning bolt from igniting the wildfire, but mitigation funds can pay for camera systems that spot the fire & automatically alert responders before it becomes too large to stop, preventing it from reaching nearby communities. Last year, a successful project like this saved hundreds of homes in Oregon.

Even with cameras, we can’t spot every fire that starts, but mitigation efforts like home hardening and creating defensible space can save a neighborhood. If that neighborhood is in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), it can act as a barrier — a shield — protecting homes farther from the WUI, potentially saving local communities and Tribal Nations.

It’s the difference between a fire that “just” causes the community to fill with smoke and red skies — or one that reduces the built environment to ashes, threatening our safety and destroying the lives we’ve built, including our economic security.

Floods

We can’t stop the rainstorm from coming, but mitigation efforts can retrofit a levee or a dam, stabilize river banks, or dredge, potentially preventing that storm from flooding the places we love.

Efforts can also elevate structures so that if the area floods, the powerful, swift waters flow beneath what we love rather than sweeping the structures — and potentially those within them, given a failed evacuation — downstream.

Earthquakes

We can’t stop earthquakes from happening, but we can retrofit dams so they don’t fail, destroying communities below. Soil stabilization can prevent fuel tank failure, which could cause an environmental catastrophe. Retrofitting bridges can help insure successful recovery effort, including food and medication distribution, and help ensure communities aren’t isolated. Upgrades can be made to improve water, natural gas, communications, and electrical infrastructure so communities don’t lose these precious resources for weeks or even months after the earthquake.

Earthquake mitigation efforts can mean the difference between a parent picking up a child from a structurally sound, still-standing school after a major earthquake and showing up to find a partially collapsed building with search-and-rescue efforts underway.

Tsunamis

We can’t stop the tsunami, but we can build ADA-accessible vertical evacuation structures (VES) so that people & pets can reach high ground before the first unforgiving wall of water hits the shore. It’s the difference between standing safely with family (including pets), friends, neighbors, and coworkers on a structure that towers above the 50’– 80′ wall of water destroying everything below — and communities being swept away in that torrent.

Without the structures, thousands of lives along the Pacific Northwest are estimated to be lost in the next near-shore CSZ tsunami. Washington needs roughly 50-80 of these structures, strategically placed where natural high ground is too far for residents and visitors to reach in time. They currently have 2. Oregon likely needs 20 and has only 1. We know what needs to be done and how to do it; we just need the funding.

Where Things Stand

Climate change is making the weather-related natural hazards occur more frequently. It’s making them stronger, faster, larger — like giving an already formidable opponent superpowers. At a time when we should be “superpowering” (not a word, but you get the point) our defenses, natural hazard mitigation funding is being stripped away.

• Preparedness: steps taken to be ready for the impact of a natural (or manmade) disaster.
• Mitigation: steps taken to decrease that impact.

Without efforts to soften the blow, natural hazards will hit with full impact, weakening economies, leaving ripple effects from damaged infrastructure, and creating less resilient communities overall. It shifts the burden onto individuals, families, and communities to “superpower” their preparedness efforts… at a time when inflation is already hitting our checkbooks with unforgiving resolve.