It’s Only a Matter of Time Before a Tsunami Hits the Northwest. Why Is It Missing from FEMA’s Risk Analysis?
Politico, December 14, 2023 – This shift got a big nudge from two devastating series of disasters in 2017 and 2018: the “HIM” hurricanes (Harvey, Irma and Maria) and the wildfires that torched large swaths of California and turned a town called Paradise into hell on earth. Together these “stretched FEMA pretty thin, some would say past the breaking point,” says former Florida emergency management director Bryan Koon, who now chairs the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council. They emptied FEMA’s coffers and, like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy before, forced Congress to pony up extra funds…Meanwhile, growing evidence confirmed the value of pre-disaster mitigation: “The studies I’ve been involved with show that the return on investment in mitigation versus recovery ranges from 6-to-1 to 13-to-1,” says Koon.
