Federal funding to support hazard mitigation will safeguard more lives
By Jeanne Herb, Senior Policy Fellow
All Americans’ thoughts and prayers go out to all the families in central Texas affected by the catastrophic flooding that claimed the lives of 109 people, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp. This event has been described as an unimaginable tragedy and one that our country will feel for decades to come. The devastation is truly heartbreaking, and no words can adequately describe the immense grief felt by the community and our entire nation.
The New York Times reported that, as far back as eight years ago, the county where Camp Mystic is located considered installing a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River that would have included sirens and river gauges, and other flood warning communications tools. However, as reported in the Times, the county rejected installing the system because it was thought to be too expensive. A senior county elected official was quoted as saying that local residents were resistant to new spending.
The Texas flood disaster comes at a time when the federal government has ended the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which is the nation’s largest funding source to support hazard mitigation. Hazard mitigation involves actions that states and communities take before disasters to reduce the loss of life and property when disasters do strike. Established with bipartisan support through the federal Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, the BRIC program began providing a stable funding source for pre-disaster mitigation projects across the U.S., including New Jersey, with its first funds available in 2020 during the first Trump administration.
Pre-disaster investments strengthen community resiliency at a time when natural disasters and climate-related emergencies are increasing in frequency and severity. The most recent annual State of the Climate report from the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center at Rutgers University indicates a continuation of warming temperatures, rising sea levels and increased precipitation, particularly in intense rainfall events. These trends are expected to intensify with further climate change, leading to more frequent and severe heat waves, coastal flooding and potentially drier periods between rainfall, impacting various aspects of life in New Jersey.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that, from 1980-2024, there were 75 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each affecting New Jersey. In the Garden State, the BRIC program has provided important resources to invest in projects designed to protect communities before natural disasters occur. NJ Spotlight News reported that, since the start of the BRIC program, 35 projects across New Jersey have been awarded grants totaling more than $180 million.
New Jersey has worked hard to maximize BRIC funding to support projects that deliver immediate and tangible benefits to residents, infrastructure, homes and businesses. Examples include Hoboken’s ResilienCity Park, which transformed an asphalt-covered site into 5 acres of public open space with recreational amenities and which can store 2 million gallons of stormwater to alleviate impacts to the city’s infrastructure from flooding; creation of a large retention basin under a ballfield in the Monmouth County town of Highlands to capture stormwater and release it in a controlled fashion and transforming an old canal back to its original wetlands state to maximize flood control. Other BRIC-funded improvements include a new floodwall around the Cape May County Ocean City sewer treatment plant, a resilience hub for the Newark Ironbound neighborhood to safely shelter residents and provide resources and information in emergencies such as floods, and flood mitigation and pumping station power flood-resilience projects in Bayonne.
In an April 15 letter to Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 50 members of Congress, including Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th), stated that “BRIC has served as a lifeline for our constituents that face the constant fear of fires, floods, landslides, and more.” The Congress members said that across their districts, “natural disasters are no longer confined to a season” and “instead, the risks persist throughout the year, and it’s critical to prepare our communities as we learn to live with worsening natural disasters.”
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th) called the cuts to the BRIC program “short-sighted and dangerous” and predicted they would end up costing local taxpayers more and put the entire coast of New Jersey at greater risk. A May 12 letter to Secretary Noem by more than 80 bipartisan members of Congress, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), stated that “BRIC funds are spurring communities across the country to strengthen their resilience to extreme weather, and forgoing these critical investments will only make it harder and more expensive for communities to recover from the next storm.”
Without funding for infrastructure and improvements to strengthen our communities before disasters strike, most federal funds are spent on responding after disasters occur. Pre-disaster spending not only protects lives, homes and communities, but it provides a valuable return on investment. Recent research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Allstate finds that every dollar spent on natural disaster resilience and preparedness saves communities $13 in long-term economic costs, damage avoided and cleanup expenses after disasters.
At a time when our country grieves for the loss of life in Texas, this tragedy serves as a stark reminder of the critical importance of proactive disaster preparedness. While our thoughts and prayers are with those affected, it’s clear that communities — including those in New Jersey — need more than sympathy in the face of escalating natural disasters.
Investing in resilient infrastructure and robust warning systems isn’t just a matter of saving money in the long run; it’s about safeguarding lives and preventing unimaginable heartache. The lessons from Camp Mystic, coupled with the proven benefits of programs like BRIC, underscore an urgent need for renewed federal commitment to pre-disaster mitigation. We must prioritize these vital investments to protect our communities and ensure that such devastating losses become a tragic exception, not a recurring nightmare.