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FEMA disaster work cuts worsen US exposure to compound weather events

Scientists cited by SCMP Economy warn more frequent heatwaves can ignite wildfires, while an El Nino could intensify rain, flooding, and landslides.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Trade & Tariffs

Across the United States this week, multiple disasters occurring close together are disrupting daily life and raising health risks, including Canadian wildfire smoke darkening parts of the Midwest and Northeast, extreme heat on the East Coast, and catastrophic flooding in Texas. Experts describe these back to back and overlapping crises as compound events.

SCMP Economy reports that experts say climate change is making compound events more likely, and that the Trump administration’s cuts to disaster work are complicating the response. Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, Columbia University’s faculty director of the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness, said the country is not as well prepared as it was a few years ago.

The story adds that Samantha Penta of the University at Albany, who focuses on emergency preparedness, pointed to a reduced scale of federal resources that shifts more pressure onto state and local governments to manage complex crises on their own. It also cites John Abatzoglou, a climatologist at the University of California at Merced, who said scientists expect compound calamities to rise as wildfires become more likely during more frequent heatwaves.

SCMP Economy further notes Abatzoglou’s warning that a climate influenced super El Nino could bring more extreme rain, flooding, and landslides across multiple states, with one extreme potentially amplifying the odds of another. He said increasing one type of extreme can result in a larger overall impact when paired with another.

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