Podcast: Challenges mount for counties facing disasters

Counties that suffer major damage during natural disasters would benefit dramatically from a FEMA Act proposal to do away with reimbursement and instead offer counties recovery grants up front.

Two overlapping disaster recovery efforts are now unfolding in Washington: a sweeping executive-branch review of FEMA and a bipartisan legislative push to reform the agency through Congress. County officials should understand both tracks, what they could mean for local governments and where each stands today.

As FEMA resumes and restructures its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program, counties are reassessing projects that were put in limbo during its cancellation and creating new hazard mitigation gameplans ahead of its upcoming funding cycle.