New Administration Has a Lot of Work to Do.

• Position: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

In the U.S., 2020 saw more billion-dollar disasters than any other year in recorded history, even without accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a growing trend of more-powerful disasters, such as forest fires or hurricanes, across more susceptible areas. This vulnerability is becoming understood to include a combination of the built environment, governance, and underlying social vulnerability, stresses Jeff Schlegelmilch, director for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute, New York, who adds that there is increasing evidence as to how racial and socioeconomic disparities contribute to disaster vulnerability, and how Federal assistance programs actually widen these disparities in the aftermath of a disaster.

Among Federal agencies in the U.S., disasters are managed by as many as 90 different programs across 20 agencies, Schlegelmilch points out. These come with distinct triggers for activation, ranging from loss thresholds to presidential declarations. Many programs also require special congressional appropriations to fund them. However, these programs are an uneven patchwork, leaving significant gaps in some areas, and overlapping responsibilities and authorities in others.

Pres. Joe Biden and his Administration will need to embark on urgent disaster management reform, with a goal of ultimately simplifying our response in increasingly complex disasters, Schlegelmilch indicates:

Conduct a review. 'The first step is to define the scope of the problem. To this end, the Administration should conduct a review of disaster management programs by relevant personnel in the White House's National Security staff in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Health and Human Services, and other relevant agencies to identify sources of redundancy and inertia in existing programs, with recommendations for interim actions to ensure moretimely assistance to disaster survivors waiting on benefits and other forms of assistance."

Create a multidisciplinary commission. 'The complexity of disasters inherently requires a diversity of perspectives. The process of improvement should be guided by a multidisciplinary commission to develop recommendations for comprehensive disaster management reform.

"The commission should include state and local officials, emergency...