The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition convenes and supports disaster-impacted communities to ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households, including the lowest-income and most marginalized people who are often the hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover.
Learn more about the DHRC’s policy recommendations here.
Events
The Resilience 21 Coalition has partnered with The Climate Group to host a U.S. Climate Week Event Dialogue on Wednesday, April 21 at 8 pm ET. The event, “Building a Nation of Resilient Communities,” will feature a range of short presentations and discussions from Resilience 21’s leadership to discuss their base-building model resilience efforts. Register for the event here.
Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico’s virtual Housing is a Right Convening will be held on April 29-30. The convening is a space to share knowledge, experience, and hopes regarding the financing of housing and the protection of homes as a human right. The convening will bring together the voices of organizations, groups, and advocates for housing in times of disasters and social and racial inequality. Learn more and register here.
Reporting
Beginning with this year’s hurricane season outlooks, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center will use 1991-2020 as the new 30-year period of record. The updated averages for the Atlantic hurricane season have increased with 14 named storms and 7 hurricanes. The average for major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5) remains unchanged at 3. The previous Atlantic storm averages, based on the period from 1981 to 2010, were 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes.
Nature explores how the increased number and intensity of disasters could affect how countries reach their United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Without new models, improved metrics, and more investment, the domino effects of extreme events could derail the UN’s SDGs.
Learn more about North Carolina’s flood resilience efforts in the sixth and final installment in a series on making the North Carolina coast more resilient to the effects of climate change, a special project part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines initiative.
Hurricanes Laura and Delta
FEMA, HUD, USDA, SBA, and various offices from the state of Louisiana in partnership with other local, state, federal, nonprofit, and community partners will host a series of virtual information sessions on disaster recovery programs and services. The information sessions, planned for April 14 through April 24, will provide Louisiana storm survivors with resources to help them in their recovery efforts as they rebuild and repair their homes. Registration, session times, topics, and more information can be found here.
Wildfires
The Washington Post reports that the drought-plagued California and western U.S. may see another devastating wildfire season. The drought, which led to the most extreme wildfire season on record in California and Colorado last year, is now worse, portending another severe fire season.
In response to Colorado’s devastating wildfires in 2020, FEMA and the state of Colorado are hosting a series of webinars to help residents understand increased threats to their homes, lives, and property and prepare for the upcoming wildfire season.
FEMA officials are working to combat misinformation about why they are parking trailer homes at an old mill site north of Reedsport. Toney Raines, FEMA’s federal coordinating officer for Oregon, reports the trailers are for Oregonians who have been displaced due to last year’s devastating wildfires.
Winter Storm
Spectrum News 1 reports that renters in several apartment complexes in the Austin area are facing eviction from their apartments or the hotels they have been staying in since the February winter storm. Nonprofit organizations are scrambling to find temporary housing for tenants at Douglas Landing Apartments in Austin and DoubleCreek Apartments in Round Rock. Residents received notices that apartments with severe storm damage cannot be repaired in a reasonable time, so those tenants’ leases will be terminated. Housing advocates say many of the families are minorities, undocumented workers, or immigrants who are fearful to speak up about this.