Latest news with #HurricaneKatrina
Business Wire
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Resilient Recovery Initiative Receives Grant From the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Following Eaton and Palisades Wildfires
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Climate Resolve and Resilient Cities Catalyst together received a $250,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to seed development of a comprehensive Resilient Recovery Roadmap in response to the Eaton and Palisades wildfires that devastated Los Angeles communities. The Resilient Recovery Roadmap will shape a multi-year, multi-million dollar community-led effort that will guide billions of dollars in long-term recovery funding and build resilience to future disasters. "With the Hilton Foundation's support, we can begin the critical work of bringing diverse stakeholders together to develop actionable plans for recovery and future resilience." The Roadmap will serve as a comprehensive and actionable plan that addresses both immediate recovery needs and long-term community resilience. The project will bring together global expertise from successful disaster recovery efforts while prioritizing local community experiences and needs. "This initiative builds on our previous work following the 2018 Woolsey Fire and applies global best practices in resilience planning to the specific challenges facing Los Angeles neighborhoods," said Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director of Climate Resolve, who also serves on LA County's Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery. "With the Hilton Foundation's support, we can begin the critical work of bringing diverse stakeholders together to develop actionable plans for recovery and future resilience." Global nonprofit Resilient Cities Catalyst brings extensive experience in disaster recovery, with a team that has led resilience-building efforts following Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and other crises. Climate Resolve, meanwhile, combines direct community engagement with successful policy advocacy in California and has authored several wildfire reports, including Lessons from the Woolsey Fire in 2020 and Mental Health Effects Of Wildfire Smoke, Solastalgia, and Non-Traditional Firefighters in collaboration with the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions in 2021. 'Resilient Cities Catalyst is honored to support this critical recovery effort in partnership with Los Angeles communities,' said Sam Carter, Founding Principal at Resilient Cities Catalyst. 'Every place is unique, but we are excited to share the lessons we have learned from around the world to inform a resilient recovery process.' With a target release date of fall 2025, the Roadmap will be driven by an inclusive and equitable process that integrates convenings, engagement with key stakeholders, and alignment with other existing recovery efforts. For more information about the Resilient Recovery Roadmap or to learn how to support or collaborate in advancing this effort, please contact Kris Eclarino, Senior Technical Manager at keclarino@
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
FEMA uncertainty hangs over hurricane season
Uncertainty is hanging over this year's hurricane season as meteorologists predict 'above-normal' activity and the Trump administration sends shifting signals over the future of the federal government's role in natural disaster response. Despite talk of eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in its current form, the administration says it remains 'laser focused on disaster response and protecting the American people.' But red and blue states alike say they aren't sure what the future of FEMA looks like. In June, at a hurricane preparedness news conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) was asked whether the state could take on more responsibilities amid the administration's push for states to take a bigger role. 'I don't know what added responsibilities that would be,' he responded. A handful of states have set up task forces or commissions to prepare for changes being discussed in Washington. A bipartisan coalition of Georgia state lawmakers led by state Rep. Clint Crowe (R) created a study committee on disaster mitigation. Kentucky's state Legislature passed a law creating a task force to prepare for potential changes in FEMA funding. Republican state Sen. Matthew Deneen, who co-sponsored the Kentucky bill, said the panel would make sure the state is prepared for whatever comes. 'Well, I think that any time that we're going to have change coming out of Washington, D.C., on the federal level, you know, we don't know exactly what those numbers are going to be, and so it's very important for us to be agile, to be responsive and to be prepared,' he told The Hill. Trump administration officials and some Republicans on Capitol Hill argue the agency is inefficient and should take a more supportive role, with states taking the lead in disaster response. 'Federal emergency management should be state and locally led rather than how it has operated for decades,' Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this month. 'This entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency,' she added. But rhetoric from President Trump's officials shifted toward reforming FEMA, rather than axing it entirely, following the devastating floods in Texas this month. Noem faced criticism over reports of botched disaster response efforts, and the Houston Chronicle editorial board even slammed Noem's leadership, comparing FEMA's response to the Texas floods to the Hurricane Katrina debacle. The Texas floods killed at least 120 people, with more than 100 still missing. A preliminary estimate from AccuWeather projects the disaster to cost between $18 billion and $22 billion. Still, Trump has praised Noem's handling of the floods and brushed off reports that her changes to funding decisions slowed down the federal response in Texas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is forecasting 13 to 19 named storms this hurricane season, including three to five major hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. 'As we witnessed last year with significant inland flooding from hurricanes Helene and Debby, the impacts of hurricanes can reach far beyond coastal communities,' acting NOAA Administrator Laura Grimm said in May. A FEMA spokesperson said in a statement there is 'no uncertainty about what FEMA will be doing this Hurricane Season.' 'The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades,' a spokesperson said. Stretching state budgets States, however, are facing a barrage of new budget demands as federal lawmakers cut spending on issues ranging from health care to natural disasters. In April, FEMA suspended its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, eliminating $882 million in federal funding. The program helped communities reduce risk hazards by providing economic support for states to improve disaster prevention. Twenty states sued FEMA this past week, alleging unlawful termination of congressionally approved grants. The lawsuit highlighted that many projects, in the works for years and meant to prevent devastating damage, are left unfinished or paused. The FEMA spokesperson said BRIC was a 'wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.' Two-thirds of the counties that received grants under the program voted for Trump in 2024, according to a CBS analysis of FEMA data. Colin Foard, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's fiscal risk project, said the latest moves are compounding existing pressures on state budgets. 'States were already facing challenges of rising disaster costs, and our research shows that their traditional budgeting approaches were beginning to fall short in the face of those rising costs,' Foard said. 'So, as states are deciding how they can more proactively budget for disasters, that will come at the cost of trade-offs in other policy areas,' he added. States are already bracing for sweeping federal cuts to Medicaid services. About 16 million Americans are expected to lose their health insurance by 2034 under Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' likely leaving states to pick up more of the slack to cover increasing medical costs. 'If states lost FEMA reimbursement on top of the hole they just blew in their health care budget because of the lack of federal funding … there are states that are just a ticking time bomb,' Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), a former Florida emergency management director, told The Hill. Preparing for the worst Mathew Sanders, a senior officer at Pew, said states should focus their resources on proactive measures. 'I would argue the states need to increase their spending on long-term risk reduction. It's always cheaper to reduce risk, to avoid risk, than it is to recover from a disaster,' Sanders said. 'One thing that I think is absolutely true, is that, across the disaster spectrum, the federal government is the predominant funder,' he added. 'And so, you know, whatever the federal government may not provide in the future, states, localities, that's a gap that's going to need to be filled from other sources.' When it comes to where those gaps might be, or whether states can fill them, there are more questions than answers. Last fall's Hurricane Helene prompted some forward thinking on these questions in states that were hit. The study committee in Georgia recommended building code updates and a reforestation tax credit. The tax credit was signed into law in May. Both North Carolina's and South Carolina's emergency agencies are seeking to foster more private sector collaborations and connections with other state emergency management organizations. A spokesperson from North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein's (D) office said eliminating FEMA entirely would be a 'man-made disaster.' 'We need FEMA to help us address natural disasters. Let's work together to improve FEMA so we are ready for future disasters,' the spokesperson added. It's not only hurricane-prone states that are bracing themselves for change and looking for clarity on what's ahead. Republican South Dakota Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen helms a state task force established in June to prepare for potential changes at FEMA. 'I … understand that the federal government has a spending problem and needs to tighten the belt in some areas. And so, we are sympathetic to that, but we really need to know what the details are,' Venhuizen told The Hill.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
How a Hurricane Katrina victim is helping the smallest survivors of the Texas floods
Most people don't expect Mimi Hymel to remember Hurricane Katrina. After all, she was only 3 when the Category 5 storm slammed into her Louisiana home in 2005. But nearly 20 years later, as Hymel watched news of the floodwaters inundating Texas Hill Country and saw the harrowing images of destruction from Camp Mystic, she said those memories came back with sharp clarity. She can still recall the moment her family decided they couldn't ride out Katrina and the sinking feeling she felt as her mom placed Hymel and her sister in their car and drove away, leaving their dad behind to work at a nearby hospital. But most of all, Hymel said, she remembers how she struggled to fall asleep for days after they escaped the storm because she didn't have her favorite stuffed animal. 'I just had no idea if my dad was OK or even coming home at all,' she recalled. 'I had a teddy bear named Cuddles that I didn't get to take in the car with me. In a scary time like that, I really wanted it for comfort.' Indeed, the importance of these plush companions was apparent as the floodwaters began seeping through the Chatterbox cabin at Camp Mystic, prompting a 9-year-old to offer her top bunk as a safe place for campers to store their stuffies during the storm. Hymel said the trauma of escaping a natural disaster has a way of changing you. But all these years later, she's found a way of channeling her experience during Katrina into helping today's youngest survivors. Gifting comfort in a crisis In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Hymel said there was no shortage of local organizations and kind neighbors who tried to meet her family's immediate needs for food, clothes and shelter. But as a child, she said she struggled to process such dramatic and rapid change. 'When we finally did get back to our house, everything was destroyed,' she recalled. And Cuddles had been lost to the floodwaters. Studies have long shown blankets or stuffed animals can help children adapt to unfamiliar or distressing situations and they become even more important when a child is processing grief. Although the family ultimately resettled in Texas, as she grew older, Hymel said she noticed how some first responders or families would share photos of stuffed animals they recovered after a disaster. 'I was once that child so it's always just emotional seeing those photos,' she said. 'I realized that kids experience disasters a little bit differently, so relief needs to work a little differently for them too.' That realization sparked Hymel to mobilize after catastrophes, coordinating with local businesses to host donation drives for stuffies and then partnering with first responders and other organizations to help distribute the plush toys in the aftermath of a tragedy. After the success of her early donation efforts, Hymel founded Comfort Bears in a Catastrophe. The nonprofit not only provides kids with a new stuffed animal after a crisis, but they also connect families to mental health resources. Each stuffed animal is tagged with a card offering free crisis counseling through the national Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers children and their families help navigating traumatic events. As interest in her work grew, so did the need. From the Miami Surfside condo collapse to the destructive fires in Maui and Los Angeles and countless floods and tornadoes, these days the steady drumbeat of disasters has been relentless, Hymel said. And so far, the nonprofit has donated more than 50,000 stuffed animals to children in need, Hymel said. She has also written a series of children's books called 'Miss Prepared and Captain Ready.' 'It teaches them important skills to know if a disaster were to hit, but it also encourages kids to get involved in their own way,' she said. But nothing, Hymel added, can compare to the joy of seeing a child receive a new stuffed animal and finding a sense of comfort in the midst of a crisis. 'After Hurricane Ian, I was able to donate to the hospital I was actually born in,' Hymel said. 'That was just kind of full circle.' Children helping children From her home in Houston earlier this month, Annie Gully and her daughter watched as reports of flooding in the Texas Hill Country grew more dire by the hour. A close friend, she later learned, lost her niece, 8-year-old Blakely McCrory, in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic. 'It's just unfathomable to even wrap your head around something like this happening,' she said. 'You kind of have to go through the sadness and then you're like, 'OK, what can we do to help.'' Gully, who owns Tree House Arts and Crafts, a local children's art studio, said over the years she's seen how a child's favorite stuffed animal can become like a family member. So, when her daughter suggested a donation drive for kids, she leaped at the idea. She reached out to Comfort Bears on social media and within hours they had a game plan. Gully's donation drive was covered on the local news and 'that day alone, I think we collected 600' stuffed animals, she said. After three days they received more than 1,100 donations to be distributed throughout the state. 'Children don't really have an outlet to help' after a crisis, Gully said. 'You could tell their parents had explained to them that other kids have lost their lovies and how sad would it be if you lost your(s).' Gully is also selling 'Mystic Strong' artwork, and the proceeds will be donated to charity in honor of McCrory and the other lives lost at Camp Mystic. 'I feel like every time you turn on the news, there's just something worse that you hear about,' Gully said. But, she added, watching her community come together to donate comfort to the smallest victims of the floods in Kerr County has given her a reason to hope. 'No one cares who you are, what you look like or who you voted for,' she said, 'We're all just doing things together to help.'
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
How a Hurricane Katrina victim is helping the smallest survivors of the Texas floods
Most people don't expect Mimi Hymel to remember Hurricane Katrina. After all, she was only 3 when the Category 5 storm slammed into her Louisiana home in 2005. But nearly 20 years later, as Hymel watched news of the floodwaters inundating Texas Hill Country and saw the harrowing images of destruction from Camp Mystic, she said those memories came back with sharp clarity. She can still recall the moment her family decided they couldn't ride out Katrina and the sinking feeling she felt as her mom placed Hymel and her sister in their car and drove away, leaving their dad behind to work at a nearby hospital. But most of all, Hymel said, she remembers how she struggled to fall asleep for days after they escaped the storm because she didn't have her favorite stuffed animal. 'I just had no idea if my dad was OK or even coming home at all,' she recalled. 'I had a teddy bear named Cuddles that I didn't get to take in the car with me. In a scary time like that, I really wanted it for comfort.' Indeed, the importance of these plush companions was apparent as the floodwaters began seeping through the Chatterbox cabin at Camp Mystic, prompting a 9-year-old to offer her top bunk as a safe place for campers to store their stuffies during the storm. Hymel said the trauma of escaping a natural disaster has a way of changing you. But all these years later, she's found a way of channeling her experience during Katrina into helping today's youngest survivors. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Hymel said there was no shortage of local organizations and kind neighbors who tried to meet her family's immediate needs for food, clothes and shelter. But as a child, she said she struggled to process such dramatic and rapid change. 'When we finally did get back to our house, everything was destroyed,' she recalled. And Cuddles had been lost to the floodwaters. Studies have long shown blankets or stuffed animals can help children adapt to unfamiliar or distressing situations and they become even more important when a child is processing grief. Although the family ultimately resettled in Texas, as she grew older, Hymel said she noticed how some first responders or families would share photos of stuffed animals they recovered after a disaster. 'I was once that child so it's always just emotional seeing those photos,' she said. 'I realized that kids experience disasters a little bit differently, so relief needs to work a little differently for them too.' That realization sparked Hymel to mobilize after catastrophes, coordinating with local businesses to host donation drives for stuffies and then partnering with first responders and other organizations to help distribute the plush toys in the aftermath of a tragedy. After the success of her early donation efforts, Hymel founded Comfort Bears in a Catastrophe. The nonprofit not only provides kids with a new stuffed animal after a crisis, but they also connect families to mental health resources. Each stuffed animal is tagged with a card offering free crisis counseling through the national Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers children and their families help navigating traumatic events. As interest in her work grew, so did the need. From the Miami Surfside condo collapse to the destructive fires in Maui and Los Angeles and countless floods and tornadoes, these days the steady drumbeat of disasters has been relentless, Hymel said. And so far, the nonprofit has donated more than 50,000 stuffed animals to children in need, Hymel said. She has also written a series of children's books called 'Miss Prepared and Captain Ready.' 'It teaches them important skills to know if a disaster were to hit, but it also encourages kids to get involved in their own way,' she said. But nothing, Hymel added, can compare to the joy of seeing a child receive a new stuffed animal and finding a sense of comfort in the midst of a crisis. 'After Hurricane Ian, I was able to donate to the hospital I was actually born in,' Hymel said. 'That was just kind of full circle.' From her home in Houston earlier this month, Annie Gully and her daughter watched as reports of flooding in the Texas Hill Country grew more dire by the hour. A close friend, she later learned, lost her niece, 8-year-old Blakely McCrory, in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic. 'It's just unfathomable to even wrap your head around something like this happening,' she said. 'You kind of have to go through the sadness and then you're like, 'OK, what can we do to help.'' Gully, who owns Tree House Arts and Crafts, a local children's art studio, said over the years she's seen how a child's favorite stuffed animal can become like a family member. So, when her daughter suggested a donation drive for kids, she leaped at the idea. She reached out to Comfort Bears on social media and within hours they had a game plan. Gully's donation drive was covered on the local news and 'that day alone, I think we collected 600' stuffed animals, she said. After three days they received more than 1,100 donations to be distributed throughout the state. 'Children don't really have an outlet to help' after a crisis, Gully said. 'You could tell their parents had explained to them that other kids have lost their lovies and how sad would it be if you lost your(s).' Gully is also selling 'Mystic Strong' artwork, and the proceeds will be donated to charity in honor of McCrory and the other lives lost at Camp Mystic. 'I feel like every time you turn on the news, there's just something worse that you hear about,' Gully said. But, she added, watching her community come together to donate comfort to the smallest victims of the floods in Kerr County has given her a reason to hope. 'No one cares who you are, what you look like or who you voted for,' she said, 'We're all just doing things together to help.'
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
How a Hurricane Katrina victim is helping the smallest survivors of the Texas floods
Most people don't expect Mimi Hymel to remember Hurricane Katrina. After all, she was only 3 when the Category 5 storm slammed into her Louisiana home in 2005. But nearly 20 years later, as Hymel watched news of the floodwaters inundating Texas Hill Country and saw the harrowing images of destruction from Camp Mystic, she said those memories came back with sharp clarity. She can still recall the moment her family decided they couldn't ride out Katrina and the sinking feeling she felt as her mom placed Hymel and her sister in their car and drove away, leaving their dad behind to work at a nearby hospital. But most of all, Hymel said, she remembers how she struggled to fall asleep for days after they escaped the storm because she didn't have her favorite stuffed animal. 'I just had no idea if my dad was OK or even coming home at all,' she recalled. 'I had a teddy bear named Cuddles that I didn't get to take in the car with me. In a scary time like that, I really wanted it for comfort.' Indeed, the importance of these plush companions was apparent as the floodwaters began seeping through the Chatterbox cabin at Camp Mystic, prompting a 9-year-old to offer her top bunk as a safe place for campers to store their stuffies during the storm. Hymel said the trauma of escaping a natural disaster has a way of changing you. But all these years later, she's found a way of channeling her experience during Katrina into helping today's youngest survivors. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Hymel said there was no shortage of local organizations and kind neighbors who tried to meet her family's immediate needs for food, clothes and shelter. But as a child, she said she struggled to process such dramatic and rapid change. 'When we finally did get back to our house, everything was destroyed,' she recalled. And Cuddles had been lost to the floodwaters. Studies have long shown blankets or stuffed animals can help children adapt to unfamiliar or distressing situations and they become even more important when a child is processing grief. Although the family ultimately resettled in Texas, as she grew older, Hymel said she noticed how some first responders or families would share photos of stuffed animals they recovered after a disaster. 'I was once that child so it's always just emotional seeing those photos,' she said. 'I realized that kids experience disasters a little bit differently, so relief needs to work a little differently for them too.' That realization sparked Hymel to mobilize after catastrophes, coordinating with local businesses to host donation drives for stuffies and then partnering with first responders and other organizations to help distribute the plush toys in the aftermath of a tragedy. After the success of her early donation efforts, Hymel founded Comfort Bears in a Catastrophe. The nonprofit not only provides kids with a new stuffed animal after a crisis, but they also connect families to mental health resources. Each stuffed animal is tagged with a card offering free crisis counseling through the national Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers children and their families help navigating traumatic events. As interest in her work grew, so did the need. From the Miami Surfside condo collapse to the destructive fires in Maui and Los Angeles and countless floods and tornadoes, these days the steady drumbeat of disasters has been relentless, Hymel said. And so far, the nonprofit has donated more than 50,000 stuffed animals to children in need, Hymel said. She has also written a series of children's books called 'Miss Prepared and Captain Ready.' 'It teaches them important skills to know if a disaster were to hit, but it also encourages kids to get involved in their own way,' she said. But nothing, Hymel added, can compare to the joy of seeing a child receive a new stuffed animal and finding a sense of comfort in the midst of a crisis. 'After Hurricane Ian, I was able to donate to the hospital I was actually born in,' Hymel said. 'That was just kind of full circle.' From her home in Houston earlier this month, Annie Gully and her daughter watched as reports of flooding in the Texas Hill Country grew more dire by the hour. A close friend, she later learned, lost her niece, 8-year-old Blakely McCrory, in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic. 'It's just unfathomable to even wrap your head around something like this happening,' she said. 'You kind of have to go through the sadness and then you're like, 'OK, what can we do to help.'' Gully, who owns Tree House Arts and Crafts, a local children's art studio, said over the years she's seen how a child's favorite stuffed animal can become like a family member. So, when her daughter suggested a donation drive for kids, she leaped at the idea. She reached out to Comfort Bears on social media and within hours they had a game plan. Gully's donation drive was covered on the local news and 'that day alone, I think we collected 600' stuffed animals, she said. After three days they received more than 1,100 donations to be distributed throughout the state. 'Children don't really have an outlet to help' after a crisis, Gully said. 'You could tell their parents had explained to them that other kids have lost their lovies and how sad would it be if you lost your(s).' Gully is also selling 'Mystic Strong' artwork, and the proceeds will be donated to charity in honor of McCrory and the other lives lost at Camp Mystic. 'I feel like every time you turn on the news, there's just something worse that you hear about,' Gully said. But, she added, watching her community come together to donate comfort to the smallest victims of the floods in Kerr County has given her a reason to hope. 'No one cares who you are, what you look like or who you voted for,' she said, 'We're all just doing things together to help.'
