White House Issues Recommendations for Responding to Extreme Weather

"After Hurricane Sandy tore through the Northeast in December, killing 159 and causing $65 billion in damages, national attention focused on not only rebuilding devastated communities but also fortifying the coasts against future storms," writes Matt Bevilacqua.

"Now, a White House-created task force has come out with a strategy for better preparing cities across the country for increasingly common extreme weather events. The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, led by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, today released 69 policy recommendations that aim to streamline funding, give residents faster access to federal assistance, and develop regional approaches to disaster prep and response."

In this era of government disfunction, one promising element of the Task Force's work is their focus on implementation. "As laid out in the Rebuilding Strategy, the Task Force has also taken steps to ensure the implementation of these recommendations, each of which will be carried out by a Federal Department or Agency or an existing interagency working group," says a HUD press release announcing the report's publication. "Implementation will be tracked by a team which will also build on the Task Force Program Management Office’s work to track and release data on Federal spending from the Sandy supplemental funding bill."