The case for collective disaster preparedness

The Community Brigade program is a partnership with the LA County Fire Department that works to bolster community wildfire preparation and response by training volunteers on how to fight against and recover from wildfires, most recently proving to be extremely effective against the Palisades fires and during recovery efforts.

The mutual-aid group Occupy Sandy helped New York City residents affected by Superstorm Sandy. Using and expanding the network of people created by Occupy Wall Street, 60,000 volunteers distributed supplies, created a map of relief locations, and organized helping hands wherever necessary.

La Maraña, a nonprofit in Puerto Rico, created a model for how communities could recover from disasters like the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017. By including community voices in the design and planning process of recovery projects — which can focus on water, food, energy, roads, communication, or security — the organization hopes the projects are more likely to succeed and promote longterm community civic engagement.

The city of Houston is changing its approach to measuring the full scope of damage from Hurricane Harvey so it can get help where it is most needed and improve future flood mitigation. Using data from numerous sources, Civis Analytics found unmet housing needs were far greater than initially recorded and low-income areas were hit disproportionately harder, even though recovery funding often goes to areas with higher housing values. Now city officials are working to implement solutions based on the data in order to allocate limited funds where they will be most effective.

Bangladesh has become a leader in disaster preparedness through its strategy of training thousands of community members to give early warnings on cyclones and other disasters. This approach has saved thousands of lives and has become a model for other countries. Now the country is training Rohingya refugees living in Bangladeshi camps after fleeing persecution in Myanmar to do similar work as they face threats of widespread damage due to cyclones.

Following a devastating hurricane in the early 1960s, Cuba created a model disaster preparedness infrastructure that includes excellent forecasting, education in schools and promoting a culture of nationwide training where everyone has a role to play. The country also focuses on caring for the most vulnerable in disasters and there have been far fewer deaths in many storms compared to other countries. But the size of Hurricane Irma has challenged Cuba's ability to deal with larger, faster storms.

In a country of limited resources — and perhaps for that very reason — preparing for natural disasters is top of the agenda in Bangladesh. Various grassroots, collaborative programs have been put in place over the years to help address many facets of the calamities caused by cyclones, from improved emergency shelters to long-term support for those who lose their livelihoods in the storms.

A resident of Western North Carolina started a google form and spreadsheet to connect community members with volunteers offering the help they need to recover after Hurricane Helene.

On its journey to become the first climate-resilient nation, Dominica created an early warning system for extreme weather. Once the warning reaches the national level, the information is distributed to communities where a network of local authorities spread the word. From there, neighbors and friends check in with each other, and traditional conch shells are blown as a warning, too.

Community land trusts are nonprofits that buy land, build homes, and ensure the long-term affordability of the homes they build. A trust in Florida is not only ensuring homes stay affordable after natural disasters it is also focused on building units that can withstand storms so families do not need to rebuild.