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By Ethan Harfenist
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency is best known for its quick responses—think blue tarps and temporary trailers—to horrific natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, Hurricane Beryl.
But given the increasing frequency of climate-related issues, including storms and flooding, that are impacting wider portions of the United States every day, FEMA is changing its approach from being called to action once a catastrophe is already underway to being more proactive in mitigating disasters before they start.
On Tuesday, Victoria Salinas, a senior official performing the duties of FEMA's deputy administrator for resilience, told attendees of a Climate Week event in New York that government leaders have made it clear that a new approach is needed.
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"Last year alone, we had an emergency declaration every three days in this country," Salinas said. "We're living through this time where the urgency has never been [greater]."
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Her remarks echoed the agenda outlined in the agency's National Resilience Guidance (NRG) program and marked the first day the agency started talking directly to the public about its new approach.
In addition, FEMA rolled out a new set of climate-focused initiatives on Tuesday to not only further prepare urban areas in the United States to deal with future climate catastrophes, but also to collaborate with other government agencies to spearhead efforts in advance.
The event was part of FEMA's effort to highlight what the agency is calling its "Year of Reliance," part of $1 billion earmarked by President Joe Biden in his Investing in America agenda.
"Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe due to climate change, leading to increased response and recovery missions across the nation," FEMA said in a statement, adding that the agency is also set to announce an additional $715 million in new project selections in addition to previous funding already allocated to the agency.
"More Americans than ever are on the front lines of climate change," Madeline Reeves, the deputy chief sustainability officer for the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, told attendees on Tuesday.
FEMA's approach is primarily defined by solving the problems caused by acute incidents such as natural disasters, pandemics, cyber and physical attacks and sudden infrastructure failures—what FEMA calls "shocks," as well as more long-term strains on communities ("stressors").
Asked by Newsweek how government agencies specifically plan on changing their responses to these shocks and stressors—especially when it concerns implementing wide-ranging systemic change as opposed to simply putting the onus on individuals and communities, FEMA Emergency Management Specialist Chad Payeur said the agency intends to "develop supplemental guidance to provide more detail on NRG topics."
"The National Resilience Guidance is intended to highlight the connection between shocks and stressors, the joint responsibility for addressing them," he said, "and the new opportunities for partnerships and solutions that taking a systemic approach to addressing them will open up."
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