Mid-September Wrap-Up
Occasionally we run into news, research, case studies or other useful things we find worth sharing. When we do we’ll post it here. We sorted this wrap-up to align with America’s approach to emergency management (“locally executed, State-managed, federally supported”). September has already been a busy month, so this edition is a quite long. Enjoy!
September is National Preparedness Month and emergency management agencies throughout the United States are hosting events highlighting the importance of disaster preparedness. Check with your own local or State emergency management agency to find events near you. Here in Maryland, Eye on Annapolis podcast sat down with Preeti Emerick, Director of the Anne Arundel County OEM for an inside look at their office’s mission and how Anne Arundel County prepares for disasters.
Katrina, 20 Years Later
August 29th marked the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In The $140 Billion Failure We Don’t Talk About, journalist Mark Bonner and urban planner Mathew Sanders, both New Orleans residents, reflect on the recovery of their city 20 years after Katrina’s landfall. Cheers! to The Urban Institute for publishing this tremendous data resource honoring Katrina’s 20th anniversary showing post-disaster Federal recovery spending since Katrina throughout the Gulf Coast states, including tons of charts and a bonus set of downloadable data.
Local
Kudos to: Rockaway Beach Fire & Rescue for their efforts to prepare residents for the next big disaster. The Town of Vail, CO for updating their evacuation plan and Douglas County, CO for updating their EOP incorporating the latest best practices and lessons learned from events since 2021.
The City of Lexington, KY added two new warning sirens in areas that were previously uncovered, bringing the city’s alert and warning network to a total of 33 operational sirens. Also in Kentucky, Knott County is taking extra care to understand their elderly and disabled residents’ needs.
A new investigative report by the Houston Chronicle (sub req’d) exposes more than 65,000 new properties that have been built in Houston’s flood prone areas and, even better… they mapped all of them.
If you’ve ever wondered whether police, firefighters, and EMTs could actually change or extend the length of traffic lights… the answer is ‘yes’, and now Emergency Managers in Illinois can, too. Kudos to the Kane County, IL Office of Emergency Management for leading the effort to change Illinois’s statewide vehicle code.
Two California cities (Lancaster and San Jose) will start using AI to expedite building permit applications.
State
North Carolina’s Governor traveled to Flat Rock to announce that N.C. has requested an additional $13.5B for Hurricane Helene recovery.
Hawaii DOT will hold a full-scale exercise simulating a collision between two commercial airliners at Hilo International Airport on Thursday, Sept 18th.
The Massachusetts Dept of Public Health opened a 75,000 sf warehouse in Franklin, MA to store health-related supplies and equipment for use in large-scale emergencies.
In Oregon, the governor signed an executive order requiring that new construction for buildings larger than 10,000 sq ft meet “the highest seismic safety standards”.
Federal
A marked up FEMA Act of 2025 (H.R.4669) was advanced through the House last week by members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The National League of Cities does a nice job of laying out what local leaders need to know if these reforms are passed. The National Association of Counties also supports the reforms, as do community leaders throughout the Appalachians, and Emergency Managers would like their voices heard, too.
The Feds have long aspired to speed the delivery of post-disaster assistance to individuals and families, but so far in 2025 disaster survivors are facing longer, more agonizing waits, while some towns like Canton, NC are still waiting for funds from a storm that occurred 4 years ago.
GAO has concluded that FEMA violated the Impoundment Control Act for the 6th time this year by withholding Congressionally-mandated funds for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and the Shelter and Services Program. GAO did not address the remaining unfunded FEMA grants as they stated FEMA still has time to honor Congress’ mandates. Read the full report here.
On Sept 11th, FEMA reduced their backlog of declaration requests approving six new disasters (ND, NC, KS, WI and two Native American tribes), one of which was for tornadoes that occurred in June.
The US Army Corps of Engineers’ Chief Mike Ganley sat down to discuss USACE’s preparations for hurricane season.
Has FEMA denied your application? If so, you have the right to appeal and St. Louis Public Radio lays out nicely the steps you should take.
New Reports from GAO
GAO released two new reports in early September focused on FEMA and Disaster Assistance. The first “Federal Response Workforce Readiness” recognizes FEMA’s recent reductions in workforce may have hindered past recovery efforts and “could reduce the effectiveness of federal disaster response for upcoming disasters”. In the second, “Tornadoes: Agencies Promote Resilience but Actions Needed to Improve Access to FEMA Assistance” GAO recommends Congress “provide grants directly to tribal governments for building emergency management capacity”, which would give Tribes the same opportunity as State and local governments to plan for (and fund) Emergency Management programs. Further, GAO recommended the “FEMA Administrator… ensure Public Assistance Program Delivery Managers are knowledgeable of program policies and consistently apply them”.
Research Highlights
In July, Argonne National Labs released their long-awaited report titled Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing and Capacity. This collaborative effort between NEMA, FEMA, IAEM, and Big City Emergency Managers is the most comprehensive study to date examining the structure, staffing, and funding of emergency management organizations across the country (click here for a copy of the report).
14 years after the devastating tornado in Joplin, MO, Missouri Southern University students are compiling a digital archive containing artifacts from Joplin’s recovery, including photographs, film and external media sources. See what they’ve collected so far.
A new global study from UC Irvine reveals that population growth, climate-driven wildfire amplification, and human migration into fire-prone landscapes are contributing to a dramatic overlap between dangerous wildfires and the places we choose to live.
Building Code Adoption and Enforcement
A new study by RAND examines some of the barriers local government face with adopting and enforcing new, stronger building codes, including staffing shortages, cumbersome bureaucratic processes, and overall construction industry opposition.
Potpourri
The United States has suffered fifteen (15) billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2025. The record (set in 2024) is 23. The world’s largest iceberg (A23a), has broken up into several “very large chunks” and is likely to disintegrate over the next several weeks. Climate-related disasters are threatening some of Earth’s most precious artifacts, find out what museums are doing to prepare in this feature article from National Geographic (sub req’d). CNBC traveled to Asheville, NC to interview survivors from Helene and produced this short (13 min) video: “Who Pays if FEMA Goes Away”. Recent cuts to the National Weather Service budget could jeopardize NWS’ plan to embed meteorologists in State and local EOCs. Know Your Rights: Georgetown University, out of concern for safety and security of their students, assembled this excellent guide to your rights interacting with federal officers, explained.
SRP Partners’ nonpartisan research enables government and commercial clients to make well-informed decisions and plan for an uncertain future. The Porch is our place to share what we find relevant, interesting, and meaningful throughout the course of our work.