Heat Waves Need FEMA’s Help
Heat waves are costly and kill more people each year than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined, but because FEMA doesn’t count them as disasters, communities miss out on important resources
It is summer in the U.S., and heat waves have started to sweep across the country. These disasters cause at least hundreds of deaths each year—and more deaths annually than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. Heat also causes major infrastructure damage such as train derailments and road buckling. In fact, the Southern/Midwestern drought and heat wave was the costliest ($14.5 billion) weather event of 2023. Yet no heat event has ever been declared a disaster by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), meaning affected communities do not have access to resources from our nation’s disaster agency.
With our climate crisis making heat waves longer or more intense, this must change.
One solution popular with politicians, newspapers and now biodiversity, health and labor groups is to add heat waves to the list of disasters in the Stafford Act, the main legislation governing FEMA action.
On supporting science journalism
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
And while true solutions are more complicated than adding heat waves to the Stafford Act, more importantly, emergency management officials want these changes. I am one of them—formerly a division chief in California governor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services and now a professor studying the intersection of public health and emergency management at Cornell University.
We need FEMA to declare…
Read the full article here