The Weekly: The Data Story Behind America’s Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters
Climate resilience is most visible in physical defenses and materials, but it relies on information infrastructure.
Climate resilience is most visible in physical defenses and materials, but it relies on information infrastructure.
Nine months after the Eaton and Palisades fires, the Department of Angels released a large, community-level survey in October offering a detailed look at how homeowners perceive their recovery experience.
From hurricane- and flood-prone coasts to Tornado Alley spanning the central U.S., the map of American data centers increasingly resembles a target board for extreme weather.
Last week, New York City experienced another round of flash flooding thanks to a violent downpour, highlighting a thorny question: When do you harden infrastructure against stormwater, and when do you work with it?
3% of U.S. GDP is spent every year on preparing for and repairing from disasters.
The Epicenter editors recently interviewed Daniel Zarrilli, former Chief Resilience Officer for New York City and current Chief Climate & Sustainability Officer at Columbia University, about his work during the post-Hurricane Sandy recovery effort.
When disaster strikes, the question is not whether we will rebuild, but how. The problem is that it costs more to rebuild a home to disaster-resilient standards. We need new flexible and dedicated financing products that make it easier for homeowners to make critical resilience investments.
At the recent Milken Global Conference, rebuilding LA was top of mind. Partnership, system-level engagement, and local leadership were key themes. And the insurance sector has a critical opportunity to reframe its role in disaster preparedness and society at large.
California has high standards for wildfire, but even with policy changes, adoption is slow. The LA Fires will likely drive up rent prices, fueling displacement in the region. The fires are straining an already imbalanced CA insurance market.
5 Early Insights from Hurricane Helene. Climate change exacerbated the impacts of Helene. Hurricanes are no longer just a coastal threat. And utilities face growing recovery costs alongside pressure to build more resilient grid systems.
By rebuilding the same way we’ve done in the past, we’re ensuring the trend will continue: a costly and frequent cycle of destruction and reconstruction that can threaten existing assets and multiply financial losses across every sector.