Inspiring stories of heroism and humanity in western North Carolina will almost certainly be followed by years of anger, frustration and insanity. Because right now, no federally-funded rebuilding program — no matter who runs it — can meet any reasonable measure of success. FEMA has two options at its fingertips to change that future.
Brad Gair has managed government-backed disaster recovery around the world since the 1990s. He helped design and execute rebuilding programs after Hurricane Floyd, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria and more. He’s been in Hawaii since the wildfires last year. (Disclosure: I worked for Gair on New York City’s Hurricane Sandy recovery.)
In testimony to Congress in 2016, Gair said, “The federal government often speaks of the sequence of delivery in disaster assistance as if there is a coherent plan behind it all, when in reality it is a series of patchwork programs that more than anything else confuse, frustrate and demoralize both those in need of aid and those trying to provide it.”
I asked Gair whether this time, after decades of failure which most everybody acknowledges, the federal government could try something different.
To understand his response, you have to understand the status quo. After every declared disaster, impacted residents can avail themselves of relatively small grants through FEMA. If that is not enough to return a home to habitable condition, then residents hole up in FEMA trailers or FEMA-funded hotel rooms. These “temporary” sheltering options, which sometimes last years, can cost billions. In the meantime, damaged homes fall further into disrepair.
Sometimes, Congress passes a special bill authorizing billions in additional aid. A headline-grabbing relief package seems likely after Helene and Milton.
But there is no quick gameplan for that money. Well-meaning officials must spend months creating from scratch what’s in effect a multi-billion dollar corporation “while tens of thousands of desperate customers wait anxiously for help as hope dwindles,” Gair said in 2016.
Two federal initiatives offer promise in improving upon the status quo, Gair told me. FEMA could begin executing them tomorrow if it wished.
The first is a successful pilot program called “Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power” (STEP), which FEMA first launched after Sandy. Rather than spend huge sums on temporary housing, FEMA instead pays for contractors to return damaged homes to safe and sanitary conditions, allowing displaced residents to move back in while they await permanent repairs.
In New York City, the program repaired 20,000 homes in three months for $640 million. Estimates suggested temporary housing would have cost six times as much, money that would have been doubly wasted because no homes would’ve been repaired. The STEP pilot saw similar success elsewhere.
FEMA ended the program in 2019. Gair told me that “every advocacy group since 2019 has been asking (FEMA) to do something like STEP where you’re quickly repairing homes and not flushing money away on temporary solutions.”
Indeed, FEMA’s National Advisory Council warned at the time the agency was “turning away from a promising, demonstrably practical and cost-effective mass sheltering option.”
Gair said FEMA could restart the program tomorrow. “They could just turn the pilot program back on and begin making repairs in North Carolina in a matter of weeks instead of months and years.”
Second, Congress in 2018 directed FEMA to create a new program granting states direct access to federal funds to quickly start their own housing repair programs, rather than wait months for money to wind its way through a different federal agency.
“FEMA’s own funding could be used for that,” Gair said. “It’s part of the Disaster Relief Fund. It could start tomorrow, but FEMA still hasn’t gotten it done.” A July Office of Inspector General report took FEMA to task for its years-long delay in implementing the program. “FEMA missed opportunities for (state and local) governments to play a greater role in identifying and implementing innovative, cost-effective and locally tailored disaster housing solutions,” the report said.
FEMA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
It’s not too late for FEMA to change course. If it doesn’t, western North Carolina will almost certainly join the long list of American communities suffering through years of a broken recovery process.
Contributing columnist Pat Ryan, a former spokesperson for Republican N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger, does political communications and consulting work in North Carolina.
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