90% of U.S. counties hit with disaster in last decade; Racine County has had two

By Lynn Sommers Last updated Nov 21, 2022

DREW COSTLEY Associated Press

Ninety percent of the counties in the United States suffered a weather disaster between 2011 and 2021, according to a report published this past week.

Some endured as many as 12 federally-declared disasters over those 11 years. More than 300 million people — 93% of the country’s population — live in these counties.

Bluff erosion along the Caledonia shoreline can be seen on Monday, Feb. 3, 2020, from the cockpit of local certified financial planner Michael Haubrich’s light-sport airplane.

MICHAEL BURKE

Wisconsin saw 10 disaster declarations between 2011 and 2021, two of which affected Racine County. The most recent was in early 2020, when a severe winter storm led to flooding and significant shoreline destruction along Lake Michigan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided $574,673 to support Racine County then.

That disaster declaration, requested by Gov. Tony Evers, also included Milwaukee and Kenosha counties.

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The other came after the Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011 when nearly two feet of snow fell. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided $706,995 to support Racine County then, following a request from then-Gov. Scott Walker that included 10 counties in total.

SCOTT ANDERSON, Journal Times file photo

Rebuild by Design, which published the report, is a nonprofit that researches ways to prepare for and adapt to climate change. It was started by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the catastrophic storm that slammed into the eastern US just over ten years ago, causing $62.5 billion in damage.

Rebuild by Design also ranked Wisconsin’s counties by the number of “compounding risks” they have, indicating where danger of harm coming to humans and infrastructure is highest following disasters.

Milwaukee County has the most with four compounding risks. Racine County is more middle of the road with two: for having high population density and having one type of climate risk.

findings

Researchers had access to data from contractors who work closely with FEMA, allowing them to analyze disasters and payouts down to the county level. The report includes some 250 maps. They also looked at who is most vulnerable, and compared how long people in different places are left without power after extreme weather.

California, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Iowa and Tennessee had the most disasters, at least 20 each, including severe storms, wildfire, flooding, and landslides. But entirely different states — Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, North Dakota and Vermont — received the most disaster funding per person over the 11-year period.

Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design and co-author of the report, said she was surprised to see some states are getting more money to rebuild than others. Partly it’s that cost of living differs among states. So does the monetary value of what gets damaged or destroyed.

“Disaster funding is oftentimes skewed toward communities that are more affluent and have the most resources,” said Robert Bullard, an environmental and climate justice professor at Texas Southern University, who was not part of the team that wrote the report. Bullard wrote a book, “The Wrong Complexion for Protection” in 2012 with another environmental and climate justice expert, Beverly Wright, about how federal responses to disasters often exclude black communities.

The new report seems to support that. People who are most vulnerable to the effects of these extreme weather events are not receiving much of the money, the report said. Those areas of the country also endure the longest electric outages.

“When disasters hit … funding doesn’t get to the places of greatest need,” Bullard said.

Another reason for the unevenness of funds could be that heat waves are excluded from federal disaster law and don’t trigger government aid. If they did, states in the southwest like Arizona and Nevada might rank higher on spending per person.

The report was prepared by policy advocates, not scientists, and oversteps in attributing every weather disaster to climate change. That is inaccurate. Climate change has turbocharged the climate and made some hurricanes stronger and disaster more frequent, said Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University. But, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to call every disaster we’ve experienced in the last 40 years a climate disaster.”

Even though all the weather disasters compiled aren’t attributable to climate change, Jackson said the collection could still have value.

“I do think there is a service to highlighting that weather disasters affect essentially all Americans now, no matter where we live.”

The annual costs of disasters has skyrocketed, he said, to over $100 billion in 2020. The National Centers for Environmental Information tallied more than $150 billion for 2021.

The federal government provided counties a total of $91 billion to recover after extreme events over the 11 years, the researchers found. That only includes spending from two programs run by FEMA and HUD, not individual assistance or insurance payouts from the agency. Nor does it include help from other agencies like the Small Business Administration or Army Corps of Engineers.

Chester said that if all these federal disaster relief programs were included, the total would be far higher. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimate over $1 trillion was spent on weather and climate events between 2011 and 2021.

The report recommends the federal government shift to preventing disasters rather than waiting for events to happen. It cites the National Institute of Building Sciences which says that every dollar invested in mitigating natural disaster by building levees or doing prescribed burns saves the country $6.

“The key takeaway for us,” Chester said, “is that our government continues to invest in places that have already suffered instead of investing in the areas with the highest social and physical vulnerability.

Adam Rogan of The Journal Times contributed to this report.

Photos: A look back at the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011

Winter storm 2011

Milaeger’s employee Miguel Ramirez operates a snowblower in front of the Johnson Building across from Monument Square in Downtown Racine on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011, after a winter storm dropped nearly two feet of snow on the area overnight. / Scott Anderson [email protected]

SCOTT ANDERSON,

Winter storm 2011

Fatima Jallow is a flurry of activity as she shovels her front walk on Main Street on Racine’s north side on Wednesday morning, Feb. 2, 2011, after a winter storm dropped nearly two feet of snow on the area overnight. Jallow, originally from Senegal, lives in Racine and works in Kenosha. / Scott Anderson [email protected]

SCOTT ANDERSON,

Winter storm 2011

A car is completely plowed in on Racine’s north side on Wednesday morning, Feb. 2, 2011, after a winter storm dropped nearly two feet of snow on the area overnight.

SCOTT ANDERSON,

Winter storm 2011

A city snowplow travels north on Main Street Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011, after a blizzard dropped nearly two feet of snow in the Racine area.

GREGORY SHAVER,

Winter storm 2011

Matt Adams is covered with snow as he blows snow in front of his house on Racine’s north side on Wednesday morning, Feb. 2, 2011, after a winter storm dropped nearly two feet of snow on the area overnight during the 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard. Another Groundhog Day snowstorm is expected to hit the state this year, but Racine is only expected to receive 1 to 2 inches.

SCOTT ANDERSON, Journal Times file photo

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