FEMA Resilience Designation Targets At-Risk Areas

A federal measure of flood risk places more ‘disaster resilience zones’ in the Greater Houston area than any other county in the United States, writes Muizz Akhtar in Urban Edge. Census tracts are designated as disaster resilience zones for at least five years if identified as disadvantaged using the federal Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and if they rank in the top 50 nationally or top 1 percent of vulnerable communities in their state.

According to a FEMA press release, “these designations will help ensure that the most at-risk communities are able to build resilience against natural hazards and extreme weather events, which are becoming increasingly intense and frequent due to climate change.”

In Houston, “The 14 tracts are home to slightly less than 60,000 people, or just over 1% of the county's population, but they are also home to people who tend to have less resources to help them deal with extreme weather:” the population is overwhelmingly poorer than the rest of the county, while the housing stock is significantly older.

“According to a recent survey by the Kinder Institute, significant shares of Houstonians do not feel ready for the next disaster, with 44% saying not enough has been done to prepare (in terms of mitigation and resilience projects), 40% saying their community is not ready to recover from extreme weather and 42% saying their home is not safe from it.”