Member-only story
Disaster Response Without Federal Support: We Dance Alone
How FEMA disaster assistance works now in the U.S. — and what the not-too-distant future might look like without it
For decades, a good chunk of the response and recovery funding on big disasters in the U.S. was covered mostly by the Federal Government, through the Stafford Act. And the term ‘big’ — like in big weddings — keeps itself, each year. But Congress left it up to the Executive Branch to actually “Say ‘yes’ to the dress” and open up the federal wallet for disaster spending.
This process is a bit like a choreographed dance routine at one of those weddings — between the state/territory/tribal nation (the bride’s side) and the feds (the groom’s). There are steps which must be done in order, and there are a number of places where one partner — or the other — can ‘bow out’ and effectively leave the local government at the levels below the state/territory/tribal nation (the rest of the guests), left on the dance floor alone.
Tuscaloosa County in Alabama has a very easy-to-read graphic of how they think U.S. federal disaster assistance is processed — how they see the dance moves performed. The problem is that there are a few “may’s” missing in these steps noted, and there are not a lot of “must’s”. In…
