Preparing for Multiple Disasters

As of April 2025, there have already been wildfires in Oklahoma, snow in Florida, and “rare and dangerous flooding” across the Southeast and Midwest this year.

Unexpected disasters are causing damage in unlikely places, forcing decision-makers in the public and private sectors to prepare for the most common disasters in their region as well as the rare, once-in-a-hundred-year ones. This is the new normal across the United States, but strategies exist to help decision-makers prepare for the unexpected.

Surprise storms: our new reality

The caution often found alongside investment advice that “past performance is not indicative of future results” pertains to climate disasters, too. States in the warmer sunbelt—like Texas—were under a deep freeze in 2021 with Winter Storm Uri. Regions that have little history of flooding—like Death Valley—find themselves underwater. Places with low wildfire risk—like the suburbs of Denver—suddenly find themselves destroyed, like in December 2021 during the Marshall Fire. In North Carolina, one storm begets another as the debris from Hurricane Helene in 2024 led to the wildfires in 2025.

In 2023, 46 out of 50 states were hit by a billion-dollar disaster (the four states that were spared were Alaska, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho). But it’s not just the mega storms like the Los Angeles wildfires or Hurricane Helene that decision-makers in the public and private sectors need to worry about. Secondary perils—natural disasters that are more frequent but less destructive and costly—can add up.

In our briefing on severe storms, The Epicenter reported that from 1990 to 2022, losses from severe storms—a secondary peril—increased at an annual rate of 8.9%. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, economic losses due to severe storms increased by 90% year over year.

How can decision-makers with limited resources ensure they're prepared for both low- and high-probability events?

Below, we share best practices from across the country.

Anticipate the expected, prepare for the unexpected

Whether you’re working in resiliency in local government, managing a portfolio of investment properties, or are a business owner in a disaster-mitigation industry like roofing, decision-makers need to be prepared along the continuum of disaster frequency and severity. Here are five principles to consider:

Principle #1: Invest in multi-hazard resiliency efforts

Decision-makers can seek opportunities to invest in resiliency and make upgrades that can fortify infrastructure, regardless of the type of hazard. This includes:

Updating building codes to be optimized for resiliency.
Building with fortified materials and techniques to withstand wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
Hardening power grids for extreme heat and extreme cold, like Texas did after Winter Storm Uri.

Investments in resiliency can yield benefits even when disasters don’t happen. The Rockefeller Foundation defines this concept, “the resilience dividend,” as the often-unrecognized benefits that stem from investing in resiliency like social cohesion, job opportunities, environmental protections, and space for public use.

Principle #2: Invest in technologies aimed at emergency planning and early warning

The ability to mobilize resources quickly and protect people and assets can make up the difference between a perilous and costly storm and one that could have been far worse.

Decision-makers who leverage the latest technologies can mitigate damages before a disaster even hits—from early wildfire detection technology to sensors that store solar panels in a vertical position before a hail storm hits.

Decision-makers can also ensure cities are prepared. New York City created its Rainfall Ready NYC initiative to ensure the city and its denizens were prepared for the next extreme weather event.

Principle #3: Reduce single points of failure through diversification

Decision-makers can be prepared for multiple hazards by diversifying energy sources and supply chains to limit the reliance on single points that could fail during extreme weather events.

Energy: Develop a diverse mix of power sources (grid connections, backup generators, solar and storage microgrids) so that if one source is disrupted, others can step in. The lack of diversified energy exacerbated the damage of Winter Storm Uri. Local microgrids in the Carolinas helped one community stay online during Hurricane Ian, and another in northern California helped a community remain online during an earthquake that cut power.

Water: In February of 2025, El Paso, Texas, announced the nation’s first water recycling plant that makes sewage water drinkable. To reduce the city’s reliance on water from the Rio Grande River (which has become increasingly variable), the plant will meet about 9% of the city’s demand for water on an average day. Local officials believe it is the “most efficient and cost-effective way to produce a drought-proof, drought-resilient water source.”

Principle #4: Update risk assessments and insurance strategies

Relying on outdated floodplain maps or historical fire models can create a false sense of security for communities that have avoided disasters in the past. In 2023, the National Flood Insurance Program implemented a new rating methodology called Risk Rating 2.0, which uses advanced modeling and property-level data (e.g., distance to water, elevation, rebuild cost) to set premiums that better reflect each property’s actual flood risk, including future climate impacts.

Decision-makers might also consider new ways to mitigate risk along the continuum of disasters. Risk layering is one such approach. Decision-makers in the public and private sectors might choose to fund or mitigate high-probability, low-impact events from their balance sheet, insure against medium-probability losses, and rely on emergency funds or federal aid for only rare catastrophic events. For example, a city might use building codes and drainage projects to handle routine storms, maintain insurance for moderate disasters, and seek federal funding for extreme events.

Matching the right financial strategy to each layer of risk also applies to insurance. Fortunately, decision-makers have a wide range of insurance products and other financial instruments to choose from, including parametric insurance, catastrophe bonds, and risk pools. In 2023, New York City launched a parametric insurance pilot with insurance companies that provided a (modest) $1.1 million in emergency funding to households in need after a major flooding event.

There is also an opportunity to work with insurance companies to align premiums with the reduced risks of building with resiliency. The repeated replacement of unfortified roofs has led insurance companies to experiment with new models and incentives for homeowners. In states like Oklahoma, insurance companies can reduce home insurance premiums by up to 42% if people install impact-resistant roofing. In Colorado, homeowners can save 28% on premiums by installing impact-resistant roofing.

Principle #5: Scenario Planning

Scenario planning can be valuable for decision-makers to ensure they’re prepared for a broader range of disasters. The U.S. Geological Survey’s process for its own scenario planning provides a blueprint for other decision-makers to consider a spectrum of possible futures and how to build with resiliency for each.

Decision-makers, from property owners to public utility managers, can run sophisticated scenario analyses to see how climate events—from heat waves to cold snaps to hurricanes—could impact assets and communities.

The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) program developed customized climate scenarios and resources for its cities. Internationally, the Pan American Health Organization has developed a comprehensive multi-hazard framework to guide its decision-makers.

Scenario planning is one component of what adaptation means: being able to effectively respond in an era of climate uncertainty. But adaptation goes beyond advanced scenario planning. It also includes adaptive and modular design to the built environment, like modular, portable flood barriers and removable flood walls or mobile floodgates used when a storm is approaching. Adaptable design avoids “locking in” today’s climate assumptions, enabling decision-makers to act nimbly in the face of a wide range of possible risks.

Shifting from reactive to proactive

The best-prepared decision-makers will move from a reactive posture of responding to disasters once they hit to a proactive one of anticipating and preparing for them in advance. In an era of more frequent and costly disasters, understanding the multi-hazard landscape of disaster risk and effectively preparing for it is now a fiduciary duty.