From Hurricane Katrina to the Maui wildfires in 2023, disasters of this magnitude reveal the structural failures of critical social, economic, and physical infrastructure in the U.S.
Disasters exacerbate the underlying socioeconomic challenges that have long plagued this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent report gave the U.S. infrastructure a C- and outlined that the U.S. faces $2.59 trillion in infrastructure needs over the next 10 years.
While leaders work diligently to get communities back to normal following a disaster, “normal” not only misses the opportunity to build back with infrastructural resilience, but also the opportunity to right existing inequities. Resilience and recovery efforts must account for underlying issues–-the historical impacts of redlining, generational wealth inequities, among others–otherwise, such efforts only serve to reinforce persistent disparities and communities will remain fragile to future shocks.
Leaders, funders, and innovators must take an intersectional approach that accounts for race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, and circumstance in disaster recovery and rebuilding. The Resiliency Company seeks to partner with trusted intermediaries in the communities hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.