Communities that Prepare Weather Disasters Better

Peter Gaynor, who is President Trump’s nominee to lead FEMA and is currently serving as acting administrator, has written an article for Homeland Security Today encouraging communities to get involved in preparing for disasters. Echoing the messaging of his predecessor Brock Long, Gaynor expresses that FEMA’s focus needs to be on building the capacity of local, state, tribal, and territorial governments, enabling them to manage smaller disasters so that the federal government can address larger and potentially catastrophic events. And similar to Long, he emphasizes the importance of communities investing in mitigation efforts. He cites the 2017 report from the National Institute of Building Sciences that observed that every $1 spent on mitigation saved $6 in future disaster recovery costs. Gaynor observes that since the historic disasters of 2017, the federal government has paid more than $17 billion in support to individuals and communities through grants after disasters, a figure that “underscores how important it is to invest resources now to ensure the same fate does not befall areas impacted when the next disaster arrives.” Read the article at Homeland Security Today.