FEMA has authorized $3.46 billion in mitigation funding for the 59 major disaster declarations issued due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. With the growing climate change crisis facing the nation, FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) will provide funding for states, tribes, and territories to maximize their investment in mitigation measures that result in safer and more resilient communities and reduce the effects of climate change.
This new funding will allow communities across the nation to enhance mitigation and take steps that will foster greater resilience and reduce disaster suffering as severe weather continues to disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.
Across the country, Americans have witnessed the enormous and devastating effects of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and other events. The increasing duration, intensity, and severity of such disasters — which are exacerbated by changes in population, land use, and weather patterns — are alarming and highlight one of the most important emergency management challenges facing the United States. The impacts of natural hazards on communities, families, individuals, and our economy makes it imperative to invest in creating infrastructure and communities more resilient to natural hazards.
FEMA encourages state, local, tribal and territorial governments with significant vulnerabilities that lack the resources to invest in mitigation to leverage the funds being authorized through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. For more information, visit FEMA.gov.