Buttigieg on Extreme Weather Disasters

Disaster zones such as Puerto Rico languish without the help they need. Cedar Rapids waits a decade for needed flood protection funding. The list goes on and on. And a climate crisis spawning more frequent and more severe weather events is shining a glaring light on the system’s deficiencies.

Buttigieg argues we have to try different approaches.

“I propose the federal government invest in regional resilience hubs where a lot of the decision-making is local, but it’s backed by federal dollars,” Buttigieg told The Gazette’s Adam Sullivan and me during an interview earlier this month.

Buttigieg argued that rather than divvying up disaster-related resources by traditional government boundaries — cities, counties, etc. — planning and response would be better left to his proposed regional hubs. Borders would no longer be barriers to expanded cooperation aimed at addressing threats that respect no boundaries.