TY - JOUR
T1 - If Mitigation Saves $6 per Every original="y" Spent, Then Why Are We Not Investing More? A Louisiana Perspective on a National Issue
AU - Gall, Melanie
AU - Friedland, Carol J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by FEMA Grant No. 4080-DR-LA (Project No. 0017 Statewide Hazard Mitigation Community Education and Outreach Project, CFDA 97-039) through the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) “Economic Benefit of Mitigation” project. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of FEMA or GOHSEP.
Funding Information:
Mitigation investment data utilized in this study are based on the three federal mitigation funding sources available to a community to recoup or offset projects costs: the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP, Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act as amended through the DMA 2000), the Pre-Disaster Mitigation program (PDM, Section 203), and the Flood Mitigation Assistance program (FMA, Section 1366 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968). HMGP funds are limited to states that have received Presidential Disaster Declarations (PDDs), meaning a disaster large enough to overwhelm local and state capacities. HMGP-funded mitigation projects require usually a 25% cost share (also called cost match) by local jurisdictions, which can be reduced to 20% if states have an Enhanced Hazard Mitigation Plan (McCarthy 2014). FEMA pays the remaining 75% (or 80%) of project costs. A state’s emergency management agency administers these federal dollars.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license,.
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - This paper provides an accounting of where and when mitigation and recovery investments have occurred in Louisiana, thereby generating a mitigation investment portfolio for the state. An exploratory data analysis of FEMA OpenData sets, supplemented by data on disaster damage and recovery, was conducted to develop a portfolio of mitigation actions implemented in the State of Louisiana since 1989 and to calculate damage to mitigation and recovery to mitigation expenditure ratios. Not surprisingly, Louisiana relies heavily on funding from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which it largely spends on home elevations and acquisitions with limited utilization of other mitigation actions. Our analysis of Louisiana expenditures shows that, on average, residents suffer nearly $260 in direct disaster losses for every invested in mitigation and the federal government spends $10 on recovery for every invested in mitigation. At these levels, mitigation investments are ineffective and/or insufficient in stabilizing the state's damage trajectory.
AB - This paper provides an accounting of where and when mitigation and recovery investments have occurred in Louisiana, thereby generating a mitigation investment portfolio for the state. An exploratory data analysis of FEMA OpenData sets, supplemented by data on disaster damage and recovery, was conducted to develop a portfolio of mitigation actions implemented in the State of Louisiana since 1989 and to calculate damage to mitigation and recovery to mitigation expenditure ratios. Not surprisingly, Louisiana relies heavily on funding from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which it largely spends on home elevations and acquisitions with limited utilization of other mitigation actions. Our analysis of Louisiana expenditures shows that, on average, residents suffer nearly $260 in direct disaster losses for every invested in mitigation and the federal government spends $10 on recovery for every invested in mitigation. At these levels, mitigation investments are ineffective and/or insufficient in stabilizing the state's damage trajectory.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075808303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85075808303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000342
DO - 10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000342
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075808303
SN - 1527-6988
VL - 21
JO - Natural Hazards Review
JF - Natural Hazards Review
IS - 1
M1 - 04019013
ER -