In the past decade, Native communities suffered $4.4 billion worth of damage from natural disasters but received only $810 million in disaster response and recovery funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
That’s according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute, which examines the disproportionate risk of natural disasters Indian Country faces and the lasting consequences of limited access to response funding. The analysis included federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native villages and three U.S. territories. Native Hawaiian communities were not included because of data limitations.
Since 2016, more than half of all Native communities in the U.S. have seen two or more presidentially declared disasters, and 53% of those occurred within a two-year period. These back-to-back disasters exacerbate the already destabilizing economic and environmental effects of disasters.
Presidential disaster declarations trigger federal funding when a disaster exceeds a community’s capacity to respond. Until 2013, tribes and Alaska Native villages could not request disaster declarations and could participate only in state-led requests.
According to the report, tornadoes and flooding are the most costly disasters, costing tribal communities $1.6 billion in property and crop damage. Tribes in the West saw the most damage from wildfires, while Alaska Native villages were primarily affected by flooding. Tribes in the South saw damage from a range of weather events and natural disasters, including drought, flooding, hail, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, wind, and snow. Overall, damage to Indian Country accounted for just 1% of all damage.
High poverty rates, geographic isolation, disproportionate rates of chronic health conditions and limited infrastructure contribute to Native communities incurring greater losses from disasters than non-Native communities. These factors are reflected in FEMA’s National Risk Index, which uses exposure, social vulnerability and resilience to hazards to calculate risk. Native communities face higher per capita disaster damage than their non-Native counterparts.
The frequency of natural disasters has increased steadily over the past 50 years, while the scale of economic damage has increased sevenfold. According to the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, disasters could cost more than $1 trillion in the U.S. in the next five years.
The Urban Institute underscores that it’s critical for tribes to have a plan in place to mitigate damage. It pointed to several successful examples across Indian Country. The Lummi Nation, located on Puget Sound, has been evolving and updating its mitigation plan for 20 years, which helped the tribe quickly access FEMA funding when storms caused flooding in 2017 and 2018. The White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona actively works with the U.S. Geological Survey to determine risk using assessments tailored to cultural values and economic priorities.
