Washington, D.C. -On Tuesday, June 25, 2019, Rep. Harley Rouda, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, will hold a hearing to examine natural disaster recovery and preparedness in the wake of climate change.
WHERE: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
WHEN: Tuesday, June 25, 2019
TIME: 2:00 p.m. EST
The hearing will be broadcast here.
PURPOSE
* The Subcommittee will examine federal, state, and local preparations for the 2019 hurricane and wildfire season and assess the status of recoveries from the Southern California wildfires of 2017-2018 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in Houston, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
* The hearing will also highlight the fundamental challenges that climate change poses to federal disaster preparedness and recovery, including the link between warmer global temperatures and more intense hurricane and wildfire seasons.
BACKGROUND
* Due to climate change, “the number of hurricanes that reach Categories 4 and 5 in strength has roughly doubled" since the 1970s and “there are no longer distinct wildfire ‘seasons’-there are just wildfires all the time."
* In March 2018, FEMA removed all references to “climate change" from its strategic plans for the next four years.
* Nearly two years after Hurricane Maria and Irma, millions of Americans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still living in dire conditions. For example, the island of Vieques, where approximately 9,000 Americans reside, had one main hospital that was destroyed by Maria, but the hospital has yet to be rebuilt. Mental health problems have also increased dramatically as suicide crisis hotlines in Puerto Rico “reported a 246 percent increase in suicide attempts from November 2017 through January 2018, compared with the numbers from the same time last year."
* The Governmental Accountability Office’s (GAO) audits related to the 2017 natural disaster season uncovered logistical problems with resource distribution, lack of training of responders in local customs and traditions, and insufficient coordination and information sharing between federal agencies and non-governmental organizations such as the Red Cross and local community groups.
WITNESSES
Christopher P. Currie
Director
Emergency Management, Disaster Recovery, and DHS Management Issues
Homeland Security and Justice Team
U.S. Government Accountability Office
The Honorable Daniel Kaniewski
Deputy Administrator for Resilience
Acting Deputy Administrator
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Dr. Michael E. Mann
Distinguished Professor of Meteorology
Director, Earth System Science Center
The Pennsylvania State University
James Lee Witt
Former Director
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Stephen Costello
Chief Recovery Officer
City of Houston
Mark S. Ghilarducci
Director
California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
Omar J. Marrero
Executive Director
Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction, and Resilience
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Adrienne L. Williams-Octalien
Director
Office of Disaster Recovery
Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority
Dr. Judith Curry (minority witness)
President
Climate Forecast Applications Network
