Dealing with natural disasters a priority for incoming governors
Governors have a wide range of priorities they want to tackle in the coming year, from tax reform to education. Yet it’s a topic that receives less attention on the campaign trail and in their speeches that could determine their success — natural disasters.
In the past two years, storms and natural disas- ters have killed scores of people, damaged or de- stroyed tens of thousands of homes and cost tens of billions of dollars.
Wildfires in the West and hurricanes in the South have been especially destructive, and scientists say climate change is making this more common.
As the severity escalates, governors are finding they have to make disaster planning a priority or risk the consequences of inaction defining their terms and enraging voters.
Handling disasters and emergencies was a prime topic last week when the National Governors Association held a three-day seminar in Colorado that most of the nation’s 19 governorselect attended.
“As California’s wildfires, a spate of hurricanes, and unfortunate acts of mass violence have demonstrated, such events can occur at any time,” Scott Pattison, the nonpartisan association’s chief executive, said in a statement, “including a governor’s first day in office.”
For many Democratic governors especially, the main concern is how climate change appears to be worsening the effects of natural disasters.
In California, half of the 10 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since 2017, and the costliest have been in each of the past three years, according President Donald Trump talks with California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom as Gov. Jerry Brown walks at right during a visit Nov. 17to a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp fire in Paradise in Northern California.
to the state firefighting agency.
The state has spent $500 million from its emergency firefighting fund just since July 1, putting this wildfire season on pace to be among the costliest yet.
The escalating destruction prompted state lawmakers to pass a series of wildfire-related bills this year.
Among other provisions, they provide millions of dollars to cut trees and brush, make it easier for property owners to clear their land and require the state’s utilities to step up their fire-prevention efforts.
During his campaign, incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom said wildfire planning will be a priority for his administration and outlined a number of steps he wants to take. Among them is a more aggressive approach to clearing trees and brush, particularly the state’s millions of dead trees.
“I’d rather see our National Guard working on those kinds of emergencies than being on the border,” Newsom told the nonprofit news organization CALmatters over the summer.
In Colorado, the two most destructive wildfires in state history erupted within the past six years,
killed four people and destroyed more than 850 homes combined. Both are believed to be caused by humans, leading Democrat Jared Polis, Colorado’s governor-elect, to call for a public education campaign to reduce the possibility of manmade wildfires.
Florida has been hit with two deadly and destructive hurricanes in roughly a year’s time. Hurricanes Irma last year and Michael in October caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.
Even without hurricanes, many coastal communities are dealing with flooding from high tides and storm surges. Incoming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said he will work with local governments to address rising sea levels but has been criticized by Democrats for avoiding any mention of climate change in his environmental plan.
DeSantis has said he is neither a climate change “denier” nor a “believer.”
It’s similar in Texas, which has seen widespread destruction from hurricanes and where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been noncommittal about whether he thinks human activity is affecting the climate.