Climate crisis Competing disasters leave US stretched thin

It has been a brutal week in weather-related disasters across the US. Large parts of the south-east are still grappling with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, and another potentially catastrophic storm was due to make landfall in Florida last night. At the same time, much of the west has been sweltering amid scorching temperatures, which have elevated fire risks and fueled extreme fire behavior.

- Gabrielle Canon

Hurricanes and fires are not abnormal in early autumn. But the climate crisis has turned up the dial and created more opportunities for catastrophes to overlap, ultimately putting more strain on relief resources, emergency responses and those who have been affected by the destructive events.

While federal officials have been clear that emergency response agencies have been able to lead on recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene, strongly disputing rampant misinformation about misuse or politicization of funds in areas devastated by the storm, the competing disasters have nonetheless severely strained the agencies.

The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, told reporters last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) "does not have the funds to make it through the season". Joe Biden echoed those concerns in a letter to Congress, calling on legislators to increase funding to ensure Fema won't have to "forgo longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs".

"The Congress should provide Fema additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and to give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that help will be ongoing, both for the short and long term," the US president wrote.