Andrew Rumbach

Federal judge rules Trump administration cannot reallocate billions meant for disaster mitigation A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from reallocating more than $4 billion meant to help communities protect against natural disasters. U.S.

Will hazard mitigation grants be the issue over which the Supreme Court rules on the Article I issues swirling around so many funding decisions in this administration? apnews.com/article/fema...

E.P.A. Moves to Cancel $7 Billion in Grants for Solar Energy

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/c...

Read With Me: The FEMA Act of 2025 - Public Assistance Part II: Division B, FEMA Reforms Title I - Public Assistance Reforms

I annotated my read of the FEMA Act's proposed reforms to Public Assistance programs: open.substack.com/pub/andrewru...

Ohio County Officials Exploring Temporary Housing for Flood Victims WHEELING — A modular home builder is speaking with Ohio County officials about building “tiny homes” in the community to provide affordable housing for those displaced during June 14 flooding in Valle...

I struggle to understand people's ongoing fascination with 'tiny homes' as a tool for disaster recovery, especially when HUD-certified manufactured homes are an option. The vast majority of households don't want to live in 400 square feet, period. www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-hea...

HUD approves South Carolina’s $150M disaster recovery plan following Hurricane Helene According to the plan, South Carolina faces $2.1 billion in unmet needs, with $1.7 billion in housing-related needs alone.

"South Carolina faces $2.1 billion in unmet needs [from Hurricane Helene], with $1.7 billion in housing-related needs alone." www.wltx.com/article/news...

Experts say Texas is ignoring root cause of deadly July floods: unregulated development Our analysis of FEMA flood maps in the Austin area show many homes devastated by July floods were in high-risk areas. Experts say the state must …

Getting down to brass tacks: We won't solve our flood issues without better land-use planning. I spoke with Bayliss Wagner from the Austin American-Statesman about the root causes of risk in many Texas (and American) communities.

www.statesman.com/story/news/l...

The New Yorker gets it

The road to housing act is pretty exciting on that front

I would add that HUD regulates the only form of housing that can bypass local building codes. Should be leaning hard into manufactured/off-site/factory built housing.

blue sky earthquake list!

That is...a very large earthquake.

Practicing for my career pivot once the AI solves disasters

The weather today in DC is what meteorologists call 'disgusting'

Flooded and uninsured: Many Ruidoso residents face financial losses without coverage Only 4% of homeowners nationwide have flood insurance, according to a FEMA estimate, though flooding touches 99% of U.S. counties. As flash floods rip through the United States in places

In Lincoln County, where Ruidoso is located, less than 2% of homeowners have NFIP insurance. “A lot of people that we thought would have, should have had insurance, did not, because they said it was too expensive,” said [Mayor] Crawford. www.abqjournal.com/business/art...

Why mobile homes get hit hard by extreme weather and how to build better Modern manufactured homes can be as resilient as traditional houses in the face of floods, hurricanes and wildfires.

I was happy to speak with the @washingtonpost.com for this story on manufactured housing, hazards and resilience: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...

God bless coffee

Read With Me: The FEMA Act of 2025 Part I: Background and Division A (Establishment of FEMA as a Cabinet-Level Independent Agency)

You didn't have plans on Friday night, did you? open.substack.com/pub/andrewru...

What scrapping a $3 billion coastal project means for Louisiana’s future As the state continues to lose land, advocates argue that the demise of the Mid-Barataria diversion project will leave coastal communities only more vulnerable.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

For millions in US mobile home parks, clean and safe tap water isn’t a given Millions of people living in mobile home parks don't enjoy the same drinking water protections that Americans are accustomed to.

Terrific study and story by the @apnews.com about the clean water challenges in mobile home parks. Draws on expertise of Esther Sullivan, a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute and leading expert on MHPs.

apnews.com/article/mobi...

Sourdough post of the week (month?) Chocolate and cherry.

Looking back it is 👀 how much Katrina changed the fields of disaster management/emergency management/disaster studies. It is the reason I ended up working professionally on disasters and I suspect the same is true for thousands of others. A small detail but worth remembering.

Also, I'm old.

Thank you!

Would anyone (including the authors @samlmontano.bsky.social @tcorbin.bsky.social @amsavitt.bsky.social) be able to send me a PDF of 'Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) funding allocations and relevance for US disaster policy' from RHCPP?

EPA drafts rule to strike down landmark climate finding The agency proposes to overturn  the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which underpins nationwide greenhouse gas emission limits on vehicles and power plants.

Two sources tell WashPo EPA readying a decision to completely rescind the climate-critical endangerment finding (re: greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare) and eliminate all resulting limits on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

For this work we are using SHELDUS, which is hugely helpful for property damage numbers but limited in that it doesn’t estimate indirect costs www.cisa.gov/mts-resilien...

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Chief Resigns, Citing Agency ‘Chaos’, Colleagues Said

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

(this is despite having only 19% of the nation's population)

We've got a big data feature coming up in a couple of weeks about the Gulf Coast and disasters since Katrina. An eye-popping preview...since 1992, the 5 Gulf states have accounted for 43% of the nation's direct economic losses from disasters.