LUCC members hear challenges, solutions to disasters

Key Takeaways

Disasters are hitting urban counties more often and harder than ever, and it’s essential for local governments to build strong intergovernmental relationships and work to streamline the rebuilding process to set up communities for recovery, panelists said March 2 during NACo’s Large Urban County Caucus meeting.

While wildfires and hurricanes often come to mind when thinking of urban disasters, large urban counties face a much broader landscape of crises, including aviation accidents, flooding and extreme heat — all of which disrupt central services, local economies and well-being of residents, said Sharon Green Middleton, vice president of the Baltimore City, Md. Council, who represents the Large Urban County Caucus on the NACo Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Task Force. In Baltimore, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge had ripple effects across the region, she added.

“These disasters don’t just affect one sector or jurisdiction,” Middleton said. “They require coordinated, multi-level responses that support the long-term resilience of our communities. That’s exactly what the Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Task Force was created to address. Our mission is to modernize federal disaster policies, strengthen intergovernmental partnerships and ensure that counties have the tools to effectively prepare for and recover our disasters.”

In January, a series of deadly wildfires ravaged Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and displacing more than 150,000 people across the county. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said it was key for the county to collaborate across all agencies, bringing together federal, state and county resources into one recovery center, so that people could navigate all aspects of the recovery process in one place. 

“It was about coordination,” Barger said. “That’s the one lesson that I’ve learned, is if you don’t coordinate, you are literally dead in the water. And we’ve been very fortunate that we’ve all worked together, put politics aside, recognizing that the greater need is for our constituents and our people that have lost everything.”

Los Angeles County has worked closely with the state throughout its disaster response and recovery process, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom is helping streamline rebuilding by eliminating the California Environmental Quality Act portion of the process, which can add “well over a year” to rebuilding, for those who lost their homes in the fire, according to Barger.

According to data from the Urban Institute, about 80% of the people who lost housing in the fires were homeowners, and about 20% were renters. The L.A. fires, along with flooding from Hurricane Ian and Milton, highlight the “acute threat of the entire loss of units in already very tight housing markets,” said Sara McTarnaghan, the Housing and Communities Division principal research associate for the Urban Institute. 

Housing vacancies in North Carolina and Los Angeles were below 2% at the time the disasters hit, and there aren’t enough existing housing units in those areas for people to move into during the long-term process of rebuilding, according to McTarnaghan. Data shows that those displaced from disasters aren’t just entering a housing market “as is,” but that rents go up 4-6% over the existing increases from inflation and other causes, she added.  

“I really commend the efforts to speed up the recovery process,” McTarnaghan said. “That's a critical challenge, as people get frustrated, lose hope and leave their communities when we know they want to be able to stay, but data from other fires shows just how challenging of a task that is.”

While there’s often a lot of support immediately after a disaster and media attention in the months following, it can be years before communities recover. Since the Maui fires over 18 months ago, only 14% of the 2,000 homes that were destroyed even have permits to rebuild and only six are fully built, according to McTarnaghan. There has been a much faster recovery following the Marshall Fire, which took place outside of Boulder, Colo.— three years after the fire, 75% of destroyed homes have rebuilding permits and 63% have a certificate for occupancy, “meaning people can go home” — so, it’s important to share best practices and work with organizations at all levels to make the rebuilding process as efficient as possible, McTarnaghan added.

Following disasters, equity gaps widen during recovery, so it’s important to stay visible and focus on the needs of the most vulnerable populations, McTarnaghan said. 

“So many of the social infrastructures, the planning infrastructures that get set up after a disaster are hard to access if you’re working two jobs, if you have kids at home,” McTarnaghan said. “So, thinking about ‘What are the intermediaries or the directors that we can engage residents with to keep their needs visible?’ The story in L.A. could just be about homeowners, that’s the majority, but also paying attention to the unique experiences of renters — 20% of all affected is really important as well.”

For people who lose their homes in a disaster and become displaced, there’s not just long-term impacts on their finances, but often on their mental and physical health as well, and long-term recovery groups have proven to be beneficial social networks that counties can help build, according to McTarnaghan. Mental health parity and support is a priority for Los Angeles County in recovery, according to Barger.

“Mental health [support], not only for youth, but for adults, is vital,” Barger said. “Because the rebuilding is not just about rebuilding structures, it’s about rebuilding a sense of safety for the kids and hope for the parents who are just trying to get by.”