Years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that most of them are devoted civil servants who are committed to civic duty without regard to partisan politics.
Age can make recovery harder after a disaster like the tornado that tore apart Greenfield, Iowa, in May 2024.
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
An expert on Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria explains why it’s hard for the US to deliver disaster aid in places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Neighborhood groups in Staten Island, N.Y., encouraged buyouts after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images
FEMA runs the largest managed retreat program in the country, Two disaster response experts looked at the demographics of who gets those buyouts and where they go.
The Sudbury 17 wildfire burns east of Mississagi Provincial Park near Elliot Lake, Ont., in this June 4, 2023 handout photo.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Creating a federal agency — let’s call it the Emergency Management Agency of Canada or EMAC — would support comprehensive emergency management as Canada faces more and more natural disasters.
Mississippi River flooding left parts of Davenport, Iowa, under water in May 2023.
KC McGinnis/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Within two weeks of Hurricane Fiona, FEMA had accepted most Puerto Rican housing aid applications. Nearly all those early approvals cover only $700 in assistance and won’t pay the tab for rebuilding.
The rebuilding in places like Matlacha, Fla., won’t happen overnight.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Research on Hurricane Harvey found that flood insurance and strong social networks were key factors in determining how quickly people recovered, regardless of socioeconomic status.
The Wall of Wind can create Category 5 hurricane winds for testing life-size structures.
Margi Rentis/Florida International University
The test facility in Miami helps building designers prevent future storm damage. With the warming climate intensifying hurricanes, engineers are planning a new one with 200 mph winds and storm surge.
Coastal cities like Port Arthur, Texas, are at increasing risk from flooding during storms.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A street-by-street analysis shows where the risks are rising fastest and also lays bare the inequities of who has to endure America’s crippling flood problem.
People wade through high water to evacuate a flooded home in LaPlace, La., after Hurricane Ida struck.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
The most vulnerable communities are being pushed deeper into poverty with each climate-related disaster. Part of the problem is that government aid helps the wealthiest people most.
A banner reads “Fuera Luma” (Luma out), opposing the company managing Puerto Rico’s electric grid, at a May Day protest in San Juan on May 1, 2021.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
Four years after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, federal money to rebuild its electricity system is finally about to flow. But it may not deliver what islanders want.
Developing a national disaster response plan for the pandemic was only step one.
In a year tied for the warmest on record globally, the U.S. was hit with costly hurricanes, wildfires, storms and drought.
AP Photo/Noah Berger and Gerald Herbert
NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.
Hurricane Harvey showed the racial disparities in flood damage outside Houston’s 100-year flood zones.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Associate Professor, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and Co-Director, Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Arizona State University