August 29^th will mark the 17^th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. 17 years since the country watched as much of a major U.S. city plunged underwater and more than 1800 lives were lost. Katrina was the 10th named storm that year, and the 5th hurricane. 2005 continued with major hurricanes Rita and Wilma and the “named” storms ran out of names and continued six letters into the Greek alphabet, finally ending with Zeta.

This week also marks the 30^th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which is still the strongest and most impactful hurricane to hit South Florida. One of only four Category Five hurricanes to hit the U.S. since 1900, Andrew made landfall in Homestead, FL (not Miami – but a near miss) and its track narrowly missed Tampa Bay and New Orleans. It was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history until it was surpassed by Katrina.

2022 is – at least so far – shaping up quite differently. While the National Hurricane Center earlier this month still predicted an above average storm season in the North Atlantic, there have only been three named storms so far and no hurricanes. But the country is not out of the woods yet, as hurricane season goes all the way through November. Remember Superstorm Sandy in 2012, that was in late October. And the named storms in 2005 kept coming through December with Zeta getting its name on December 30^th.

Even if 2022 turns out to be a relatively light year for hurricanes, we know there will be storms in the future. And if your house or community is hit by a major hurricane, it doesn’t matter to you if it was the only storm that year or one of a couple dozen.

States and communities must be better prepared for these inevitable disasters. Depending on where you are, it’s not just hurricanes, but floods, fires, drought, and tornados. And the federal government needs to ensure communities have plans in place, plans that are tailored to the risks and opportunities that disaster presents. Yes, opportunities. They may be tragic opportunities, but disaster often presents communities the opportunity to remake themselves in recovery to be less vulnerable, to “pre-spond” to future disasters.

This is because post-disaster the money flows. Since 2017, federal taxpayers have shelled out more than $139 billion in disaster assistance for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, Michael, and Florence as well as wildfires in the Western U.S. and other disasters. Even with recent changes to funding formulas that enable a small amount of post-disaster emergency funding to be set aside for mitigation elsewhere, pre-disaster mitigation funding is paltry compared to disaster response funding.

And even that response funding is not well understood. It takes many years to recover from a major disaster and funds are meted out over time. But funding is not well tracked to see what worked or didn’t, what should change in the future, and what are the lessons learned. For example, last summer the Department of Transportation Inspector General reported that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had received more than $10 billion in funds to help with the Sandy recovery (remember Sandy hit in 2012). As of the end of 2020, only $4.3 billion had actually been spent. Further, the IG “found that FTA inconsistently tracks and reports Hurricane Sandy funding data or does not fully comply with Federal guidance.” And that “Overall, the weaknesses we identified reduced transparency for internal users, decision makers, and the public into FTA’s use of Hurricane Sandy funds.”

Sadly, the FTA isn’t alone.

Taxpayers are invested heavily in disaster response, and we deserve to know where those funds are going and how (or even whether) they are working. Instead of providing huge tranches of cash immediately after disasters that can overwhelm agencies or states or communities, the funding should be meted out over time. And funds left unspent years after the disaster occurred should be brought back into the Treasury. When the dust settles after major disasters there should be a soup to nuts review of the pre-disaster planning, immediate response, and recovery efforts that helps inform future disaster-related spending and planning. Disasters occur too often to be treated as anomalies. Better budgeting, diligent preparation, and a sober review of communities and the federal government’s performance before, during, and after disaster events, is critical. It will save dollars, and more importantly, lives.