“The cost of response and recovery often significantly outstrips the financial capability of rural places,” write Anthony F. Pipa and Julia Davatzes in an article for Brookings, making FEMA an integral part of rural disaster recovery.
Rural communities make up the majority of counties that request disaster aid from FEMA. These communities face unique vulnerabilities when it comes to disaster response and recovery, such as fiscal limitations, staffing capacity constraints, vulnerable demographics, geographic obstacles, and more.
Pipa and Davatzes outline recommended changes that could help improve FEMA’s effectiveness in rural areas, including updating disaster declaration process to better account for rural assets, adjusting cost-share and reimbursement systems, streamlining grants, increasing research and data transparency, to name a few.
Read on to learn more.
Source: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rural-communities-fema-disaster-response-recovery/
