A Disaster by Any Other Name: Improving Assistance to States and Individuals During Long-Term Disasters

• Date: 01 May 2017

47 ELR 10410 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 5-2017

A Disaster by Any Other

Name: Improving Assistance to

States and Individuals During

Long-Term Disasters

by Rachel E. Phillips

Rachel E. Phillips is a 2017 J.D. candidate at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University.

“Hurricane Katrina Slams Into Gulf Coast;

Dozens Are Dead.”1 “California Drought Is

the Driest Period in State History.”2 “Okla-

homa Tornado 2013 Devastates Moore, Kills Dozens.”3

“Florida’s Everglades Face New Invasive reat: Rising

Sea Levels.”4 Disasters and emergencies come in all shapes

and sizes. Some a re man-made while others are a result of

natural events. e federal government has a system in

place, the Robert T. Staord Disaster Relief and Emer-

gency A ssistance Act (Staord Act),5 that assists states in

recovering from disasters and emergencies by providing

federal relief in the form of funds and resources. However,

this cu rrent system fails to appropriately address disa sters

that occur over a longer period of time. Long-term events

such as drought, land subsidence, and sea-level rise and salt

water intrusion can have devastating consequences that

leave a state incapable of bearing the burden alone.

Long-term disasters lack t he “appeal” of other disas-

ters: they might not be as media-friend ly, a re not seen

to be a s devastating or impactfu l as short-term d isaster s,

and are viewed as preventable or mitigable. One major

dierence between short- and long-term disasters is the

resulting dama ge. Short-term disasters often resu lt in

1. Joseph B. Treaster & Kate Zernike, Hurricane Katrina Slams Into Gulf

 , N.Y. T, Aug. 30, 2005, http://www.nytimes.

com/2005/08 /30/us/hurr icane-katr ina-slams-i nto-gulf-c oast-dozens -are-

dead.html?_r=0.

2.      , HNGN, Jan. 27,

2014, http://www.hngn.com/articles/22969/20140127/california-drought-

is-the-driest-period-in-state-history.htm.

3. Alice Mannette,      

, H P, May 20, 2013, http://www.hungtonpost.

com/2013/05/20/oklahoma-tornado-2013_n_3309844.html.

4. Mike Taibbi,       

Levels, PBS N, June 10, 2015, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/

oridas-everglades-face-new-invasive-threat-rising-sea-levels/.

5. 42 U.S.C. §§5121 et seq.

primari ly physical da mage (e.g., destroyed homes and

building s) and acc ompanying economic harm. However,

long-term disasters are more likely to have predomina ntly

economic damages.6 ese factors lea d to less access to

assistance and less action during such events. Addition-

ally, the broad d iscretiona ry power of the president to

declare and direct federal assistance results in long-term

events not receiving adequate support to alleviate the bur-

den on states and local communities. Further, the trend

toward an increasing number of pre sidential declarat ions

that qualify for St aord Act assis tance is burdenin g t he

system and pulli ng re sources from other disa sters, espe-

cially long-term disasters.

A change is needed in the way assistance is provided

to states and cities for long-term disasters. Part I of this

Comment will summarize the basic provisions and pro-

cedures of the Staord Act that provide support to states

in the event of an emergency or disaster. Part II will dis-

cuss drought, land subsidence, and sea-level rise and salt

water intrusion as three long-term disasters that illustrate

the inadequacy of the current system to provide support in

these instances. Part III will propose two options to help

counter the inadequacy of the Staord Act to assist in the

recovery and mitigation pha se of long-term disasters. e

rst option involves amending the current Act to elimi-

nate the misbalance of disaster decla rations for long-term

events, and the second option presents a program focused

more on state responsibility, loans, and mitigation that

would help to decrease the total number of presidential

disaster declarations and ease the burden on Sta ord Act

funds. Part IV will conclude.

6. However, some long-term disasters that will be discussed in this Comment

might result in physical damages as well. For example, land subsidence might

lead to physical destruction of buildings and land. Salt water intrusion can

also physically damage the land. But the overall economic damages, such as

loss of work during a drought, taking preventive measures in groundwater

pumping, etc., are more specic and unique to long-term disasters.

   

on this Comment, Eric Talbot Jensen for his encouragement, and her

family for their love and support.

Copyright © 2017 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.