IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

BRIC Gets Infusion of $1B

But, states and localities need to apply and administer the funds.

You can check out this Washington Post story: “As hurricane season looms, Biden doubles funding to prepare for extreme weather.”

Lost in the title of the article is the fact that the money is being provided to boost the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding available to state and local jurisdictions.

Then there is this piece of information that comes from a Disaster Tough Podcast that featured an interview with the immediate past FEMA administrator, Pete Gaynor. In the podcast, Pete relays a story about being at a conference (likely the International Association of Emergency Managers) and asking 1,500 emergency managers to raise their hands if they are disaster mitigators. Only about 15 people raised their hands. He was aghast that everyone did not raise their hands. Mitigation still is not seen as being a primary duty. He also said that if he had asked “who is a disaster responder?” everyone would likely have raised their hands.

This, then, is the problem our discipline has. We are stuck in disaster response mode and not responding to the opportunity to improve the disaster resilience of our respective states and communities by promoting disaster mitigation and, in climate change terminology, “climate adaptation.”

Watch for a new Disaster Zone podcast coming in June on climate adaptation.

Claire Rubin shared the Washington Post article above.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.