ICYMI: NPR: Trump administration cuts turned rural towns into sitting ducks for disasters
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Washington, D.C. — Today, NPR reported that Trump’s cuts to disaster preparedness and resilience funding are putting rural communities at greater risk during extreme weather. Last year, Trump canceled FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which provided money for local communities to prepare for and protect themselves from disasters like flooding or wildfires. After 20 states sued the Trump administration, a federal judge blocked FEMA from canceling the program—but communities are still waiting for their money.
NPR: Trump administration cuts turned rural towns into sitting ducks for disasters
“We are seeing increased storms and increased water volumes,” says Laura Holbrook, the director of the flood protection authority for Luzerne County, Pa., where the town is located. The levee in Duryea needs to be raised by about 3 feet to adequately protect the town, she explains…
But there’s been no way to access federal grants for such projects over the last year because the Trump administration has withheld billions of dollars for disaster preparedness and prevention that local governments, especially those in rural areas, rely on…
The delay and uncertainty mean Duryea and hundreds of small towns are still waiting on the federal government to disburse money that Congress already appropriated, says Andrew Rumbach, who studies disaster policy at the Urban Institute think tank.
“We’re a country full of sitting ducks, unfortunately,” Rumbach says. “They’re vulnerable to hazards like floods and wildfires, and the climate is changing and making these events more common and more costly.”
Small, rural communities like Duryea rely on the federal government to pay for infrastructure projects that protect residents against extreme weather.
“We don’t have the money to do it, and we don’t have the tax base to do it,” says Keith Moss, the emergency management director for Duryea, which has about 5,000 residents.