Joe Biden Doubles FEMA Program to Prepare for Hurricane Damage
The White House statement says FEMA would provide one billion dollars this year for the BRIC program.
The Joe Biden government said it would spend 1 Bn dollars to help communities prepare for worsening tragedies, the latest sign of the toll that climate change is already taking across America.
The change would double the current size of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program that gives state and local administrations money to decrease their susceptibility before a disaster happens, say, building sea walls, relocating flood-prone homes.
JUST IN: NOAA forecasters predict an above-normal 2021 Atlantic #HurricaneSeason
During a visit on Monday (May 24) afternoon to FEMA’s HQs for a briefing on 2021’s Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin, Joe Biden said they’re going to spare no expense, no effort, to keep U.S. people safe. He added they should have preparations when disaster strikes.
Twenty-Two Disasters Caused $100 Bn worth Damage
The new money is less than what some tragedy experts had stated is required, mainly because the warming planet is making storms, wildfires, flooding, and other disasters both more frequent and damaging. America experienced disasters 22 separate weather and climate-related disasters caused almost 100 Bn dollars’ worth of damage.
The formulation that directs funding would have allowed the government to put as much as 3.7 Bn dollars toward the program, which FEMA authorities considered in the early days of Biden’s government.
American President also noted the dangers from wildfires in California and other Western states. The President said he is here that day to make it evident that he wants nothing less than readiness for all those challenges.
An American scientific agency within the U.S. Commerce Department, ‘the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,’ predicts a 60 percent chance of an above-normal Atlantic storm season with six to ten likely hurricanes.
2020 was a record Hurricane season in America with thirty named storms, five of those making landfall just in Louisiana. The coasts of Florida and Louisiana are particularly susceptible to rising sea levels, even without severe storms.
Senior fellow at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute and Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), Sherri Goodman, said much of South Florida without further action, and much of the state of Louisiana around the New Orleans area, could be underwater and even more frequent flooding. It’ll put a lot of infrastructure and lives in danger.
FEMA would provide 1 billion dollars this year for the BRIC program
The White House statement while announcing the funding says FEMA would provide one billion dollars this year for the BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) program, a portion of which would be targeted to disadvantaged communities.
The White House also proclaimed earlier in the day American space agency NASA would collect more sophisticated climate data as part of a new mission concept for an Earth system observatory.
Moreover, the White House statement said that NASA’s Earth system observatory would be a new architecture of advanced space-borne Earth observation systems, providing the world with an unprecedented understanding of the critical interactions between Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice processes. These processes determine how the changing climate would play out at regional and local levels, on near and long-standing time scales.
Joe Biden Doubles FEMA Program to Prepare for Hurricane Season Source: Web
Last week, President Biden ordered federal agencies to identify and disclose hazards from climate change. The executive order also requires suppliers to the federal administration to reveal their risks linked with climatic change.
On Monday, the White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the government’s intention is to get ahead and work, use every lever they have in administration, in coordination with local and state officials to make sure they’re as prepared as they possibly could be.
