Hurricanes and Wildfires: Impact, Assistance and Recovery

In 2017, four sequential disasters-hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the California wildfires-created an unprecedented demand for federal disaster response and recovery resources. According to FEMA, 2017 included three of the top five costliest hurricanes on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that the cumulative damages from weather and climate related disasters in the United States were over USD 300 billion in 2017 alone. As of June 2018, Congress had appropriated over USD 120 billion in supplemental funding for response and recovery related to the 2017 hurricanes and wildfires. Further, in October 2017, close to 14,000 federal employees were deployed in response to the disasters.