US hurricanes and aftermath carry urgent lessons for the world

It's yet another wake-up call, highlighting just how unprepared we are for the growing onslaught of supercharged weather events.

- David Fogarty

The back-to-back disasters of hurricanes Helene and Milton should have been an opportunity for the US to showcase its ability to respond to the increasingly costly and deadly effects of climate change.

Instead, the government's Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) is struggling with staff shortages and a dwindling budget, its resources stretched by a series of other disasters in 2024 and a looming funding crunch.

Both storms struck the state of Florida, causing widespread damage. Helene also triggered severe flooding in several other states as it moved north, surprising weather and disaster relief officials with the scale of the devastation.

Making things worse, the government's disaster response has been overshadowed by misinformation and petty political point-scoring ahead of the presidential election in November. There are lessons here for the rest of the world, including Asia.

Politics should not be allowed to get in the way of disaster management. Only then can there be sharper disaster responses and better resourcing. But no nation, however wealthy, is immune to the growing impacts and cost.