Climate School Report Details 2023 State Policy Trends in Disaster Resilience
The cleanup after the 2023 historic flood in Montpelier, VT. Photo credit: Lucia Bragg.
As the world continues to grapple with the growing impacts of climate change, we will need to take clear steps to reduce the consequences of ongoing and forecasted catastrophes. Last year was the costliest year on record for the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with 28 billion-dollar disasters and 492 associated deaths. In 2023, Vermont experienced its most destructive flood in over a decade, while Hawaii endured the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century. On the state level, there was a promising outcome from 2023: Every state government passed some kind of disaster resilience policy last year. A new report examining over 600 U.S. state disaster resilience legislation enacted in 2023 was released by Columbia Climate School’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP).
