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An Opportunity For Equity After Hurricanes Helene And Milton

This season’s monstrous hurricanes highlight an opportunity to achieve greater equity in disaster preparedness and response.


 

Two years before Hurricane Helene came barreling toward Florida, came Hurricane Ian. Yolanda, a mom of two in Fort Myers, was in its path.

Evacuating felt virtually impossible—one of Yolanda’s sons has a brain injury; the other has cancer. The ferocious storm damaged the family’s roof, and left Yolanda without enough money, power, or running water to care for her sons. A local nonprofit, Center for Independent Living, answered Yolanda’s urgent call for help, and one of its team members, Stephanie, drove more than a hundred miles to shuttle the family to a safe hotel.

The most at-risk families like Yolanda’s are now continually in the path of climate-change fueled disasters. They also have the most to teach us about how to build response plans that leave no one behind.

Struck three times in 13 months

In the era of climate change, back-to-back hurricanes striking west Florida also have a lot to teach us. After Hurricane Ian, came Idalia, then Debby, then Helene—and now Milton.

Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on the morning of Aug. 5, 2024, the same region Hurricane Idalia struck thirteen months earlier and Hurricane Helene would strike a little over a month later. Debby landed as a category 1 storm, and most news headlines seemed to breeze over its impact.

Coastal Georgia begins to exhale as the worst of Debby moves north,” reads one headline.

Debby weakens, slows down after Florida landfall,” reads another.

Hurricane Debby missed Tampa Bay. Is the worst over?” another asks.

What headlines alone could never fully reveal was the extent of Big Bend’s existing vulnerability. The life and landscape-altering damage from the previous strike, Hurricane Idalia, never broke through into mainstream news.

Idalia took four lives in Florida and left $20 billion in damage in its wake. It also badly eroded shorelines and mangrove roots on islands that act as essential barriers to deadly storm surges on the mainland. Hurricane Idalia’s impact is still felt across some of Florida’s poorest counties, where about 1 in 5 people live in poverty. The rural communities of Big Bend are among the most vulnerable in the United States, according to FEMA. Many who live there are barely getting by and don’t have flood insurance.

Their stories mirror Yolanda’s. Any hurricane—Ian, Idalia, Debby, Helene, or Milton; Category 1 or Category 5—can deliver an unbearable blow.

The most vulnerable are hit the hardest after disasters

A disaster isn’t easily overcome for a family that is already struggling to make ends meet. Communities that are under-valued, vulnerable, and marginalized before a disaster endure the heaviest impacts after a disaster, suffering longer recovery times and becoming more likely to fall even deeper below poverty lines as a result.

The nonprofit where we work, GlobalGiving, has been developing solutions to the overlooked issue of disaster vulnerability for decades. Our Hurricane Ian Relief Fund supported Center for Independent Living’s life-saving work on behalf of Yolanda and other families, along with 16 other high-impact nonprofits.

Our most recent research, “The Disaster Preparedness Illusion,” shows disaster preparedness is a critical component in safeguarding communities in Big Bend and beyond.

Our research maps impressive strides in disaster preparedness since the 1960s, but the progress can easily become an illusion that masks underlying vulnerabilities and inequities in disaster response and recovery.

This illusion is particularly concerning in the context of climate change, which is driving an increase in the frequency and severity of disasters globally.

Around the world, not just in Big Bend or Fort Myers, the impacts of disasters remain disproportionately severe. Countries in the Global Majority and marginalized communities bear the brunt of rising climate shocks, experiencing nine in 10 deaths and 60% of economic losses from extreme weather events, according to the United Nations.

Research shows that for every $1 donated to preparedness and disaster risk reduction up to $15 can be saved in recovery. Despite this, a meager 1 to 4% of philanthropic investment is invested in disaster risk reduction in any given year. Without a radical shift in the way we think about disaster preparedness, some communities will continue to be trapped in a recurrent cycle of deeper and deeper risk, while others escape it.

Moving beyond the illusion

To create a system that genuinely protects everyone, we need to focus on the bigger picture of vulnerability and impact. This means investing in long-term, equitable recovery and preparedness measures that prioritize the needs of the most at-risk communities.

At GlobalGiving, our team sees a silver lining.

Public, private, and philanthropic sectors have an opportunity now to come together and lead by example—and many already are.

Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised more than $275 million for disaster response from more than 500 companies and nearly two million everyday people. They’re supporting initiatives that focus on the most vulnerable communities, enhancing local preparedness, and building infrastructure that can withstand future disasters.

Consider how the Walton Family Foundation and the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation joined forces to help The Nature Conservancy study the impacts of mangroves on disaster risk reduction in Collier County, Florida. It turns out the densely-rooted tropical plants prevented $1.5 billion in damage and reduced flooding for more than 100,000 people living below the poverty line during Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, has invested in disaster risk reduction elevating women as decision makers. In partnership with GlobalGiving, Meta supported the Center for Disaster Preparedness in the Philippines, which provides training to boost women’s roles in disaster risk reduction planning. This is important because women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, and their lived experiences make them well-positioned to drive real and lasting solutions.

The good news is that philanthropists of all shapes and sizes—from donors on their mobile phones, to decision makers at companies like Meta, to families like the Waltons—are stepping up to help achieve equitable disaster preparedness. And there are more and more tools available to do so. Tools like the new corporate disaster response framework at GlobalGiving, which has already helped dozens of Fortune 500 companies chart a meaningful course forward in the face of a problem like climate change that can seem insurmountable. Giving circles are also on the rise, with total money raised from these grassroots collectives doubling over the last decade to more than $3 billion. Crowdfunding is now ubiquitous, with over 1,400 platforms to choose from in the US alone.

As we unite in generosity to give Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton survivors the support they need to recover, let’s also seize the opportunity to overcome the illusion that disaster preparedness alone eliminates vulnerability. Only then will families from the sands of Big Bend to the mountains of Appalachia, and beyond, get the lasting attention they deserve.

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Disaster Preparedness Research Cover Photo

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Is your company or foundation ready to help communities most at risk from disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton? Discuss your goals with the GlobalGiving team today.
Mangroves have the potential to save billions in disaster recovery costs and protect lives. Photo by Bangladesh Environment and Development Society

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