Shining a Spotlight on FEMA and Household Vulnerabilities in Hurricane Regions
WASHINGTON, DC—North Carolina is still reeling from Hurricane Florence. But to better understand what level of aid the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides for needs like home repair and replacement, Resources for the Future (RFF) posted a new blog, Recovering from Disasters: Evaluating FEMA’s Housing Assistance Program in the 2017 Hurricane Season,that takes a close look at available FEMA data from the 2017 hurricane season. That year saw hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which makes it one of the most devastating in US history.
The authors, RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls and Danae Hernandez Cortes, PhD student in economics, UC-Santa Barbara, examine data from FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program, and point to three key findings:
First, individual housing assistance amounts are relatively small and are unlikely, in most cases, to provide enough money to fully repair a damaged home, or in many cases, “even come close.”
Second, most homeowners that experienced property damage and received disaster aid did not have flood insurance. In fact, a surprising number did not even have a general homeowner’s insurance policy.
Finally, the data reveal that higher-income households received greater assistance, on average, than lower-income households, primarily because of larger property damage estimates.
The blog concludes: “In the wake of the devastating 2017 hurricane season, data from FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program helps us learn who was harmed in the hurricanes and how much financial help the federal government was able to provide. Our take-aways about the magnitude of assistance, insurance coverage, and effects by income group shine a spotlight on the vulnerability of households living in hurricane-prone regions.”
Read the full blog: Recovering from Disasters: Evaluating FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program in the 2017 Hurricane Season.
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