Why Remediation Is the First Step to Real Resilience

In the United States, the first half of 2025 proved to be the costliest six months of weather events on record, causing an estimated $101.4 billion in damage. 

From record floods in Florida to wildfires in Los Angeles and across the West, the country's growing exposure to climate-driven disasters has pushed resilient building to the forefront of recovery planning.

Meanwhile, resilient rebuilding strategies account only for physical infrastructure—they don't account for the lingering contaminants these catastrophes leave behind. As the climate crisis exposes broader swaths of the U.S. to severe weather, responsible future-proofing strategies must account not only for fortified development but also for comprehensive cleanup. Real resilience can't exist without effective remediation first.

After Fires and Floods, Contamination Presents New Dangers

Beyond the visible destruction of fires and floods lies an invisible threat: disasters produce dangerous contaminants that complicate recovery and pose long-term health risks.

Consider the research on fires and floods:

Fires

When wildfires become urban fires, they destroy homes, cars, and commercial buildings—structures full of electronics, cleaning products, furniture, and machinery that aren't meant to burn. When they smolder and flame, these materials can emit toxic substances with severe and long-lasting health consequences. 

According to post-fire reporting from The New York Times, soil samples from the Palisades and Altadena in California revealed arsenic, lead, and mercury, contaminants that can cause cancer and damage to the brain and nervous system. 

The environmental toll extends beyond immediate health threats: a Nature study found that fires can lead to years of elevated contaminant levels in the water supply that degrade aquatic ecosystems and compromise drinking water sources.

Flooding

Floods come with their own contamination issues: when they wash through inhabited areas, they flush sewage, agricultural runoff, chemical waste, and other dangerous substances into the water supply and soil. During 2024’s hurricane season, flooding and storm surge in Florida released nearly 92 million gallons of pollutants into the environment, including raw sewage and waste from coal plants.

A 2024 study of the Texas Gulf Coast found two to three times as many contaminant releases were reported during hurricanes compared to periods of normal weather. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, at least 14 Superfund sites (U.S. locations contaminated with hazardous waste) and more than 40 industrial facilities were damaged, flushing dangerous chemicals into floodwaters. 

There Are Barriers to Effective Remediation

The high stakes of post-disaster contamination are often compounded by regulatory confusion and prohibitive costs, slowing recovery for the most vulnerable residents.

• Regulatory gaps can create confusion and delays. Federal and state systems treat post-disaster environmental cleanup and post-disaster rebuilding as separate processes with different funding and legal frameworks. For example, the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) focuses on cleanup, while rebuilding typically falls to local and state agencies. This fragmentation can leave homeowners in the dark about who is responsible for cleanup and how those costs might get covered.

A recent Department of Angels survey of Eaton and Palisades fire survivors revealed a lack of clarity around how to approach the issue of contamination. About 25% of survivors said they haven't been able to get their properties tested for contaminants, even though they want to. As one homeowner said, "The government abandoned testing and left us on our own. We have each had to find out what is the best route to test and remediate, but without standardization and consistency, we are a giant experiment."

• Remediation is expensive. After the 2018 California fires that destroyed 19,000 homes and businesses, debris-clearing costs alone reached an estimated $3 billion. Flood contamination is also costly: cleanup on a single toxic waste site after Hurricane Harvey cost an estimated $115 million. 

The impact of these costs is far-reaching—contamination tanks property values and delays rebuilding, compounding economic losses for homeowners, insurers, and municipalities. Cities must cover public cleanup, while insurers must pay for specialized claims and assessments related to hazardous waste cleanup. For homeowners, the cost can deepen existing inequalities for those without the means to pay out of pocket. In Altadena, for example, rising rebuilding costs and delayed aid have forced many families who have lived in the area for generations into foreclosure. 

Solutions: Remediation Can Be Built Into Resilience Planning

For policymakers, government officials, and local leaders, effective resilience means treating both contamination prevention before a disaster and contamination cleanup after a disaster as one integrated process to fortify our built environment.

Pre-Disaster Strategies:

• Use resilient building materials. Noncombustible, non-toxic materials help prevent both structural loss and cleanup. Research on California fires has found that 43% fewer homes were destroyed when built to wildfire-resistant standards (like the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus)—and if homes are less likely to burn, they are less likely to release contaminants. 
• Upgrade systems to control runoff. Expanded stormwater systems and green infrastructure that absorb rainfall can prevent contaminated runoff from reaching drinking water supplies and residential areas during floods.
• Adopt land-use planning that reduces exposure to known hazards. Avoiding development in high-risk wildfire zones, relocating industrial facilities out of floodplains, and maintaining buffers between industrial and residential areas help limit contaminant pathways. The National Institute of Building Sciences finds that hazard mitigation saves $13 for every $1 invested. 

Post-Disaster Strategies:

• Leverage local expertise. Many disaster-prone areas have seen similar events before. Working with the same specialized private firms across multiple disasters accelerates cleanup. After the Eaton and Palisades fires, the Army Corps of Engineers partnered with ECC—a contractor already experienced in California wildfire recovery—which helped identify bottlenecks early and contributed to the “historic pace” of debris removal.
• Tap into dedicated post-disaster mitigation financing. Municipal bonds and other funding streams allow localities to finance large-scale mitigation projects and reduce future contamination risks. After Hurricane Harvey, the Houston area raised more than $2.5 billion in bonds for larger catch basins and high-risk-area buyouts.
• Create “one-stop” funding that combines rebuilding and remediation. A unified process is easier for homeowners than piecing together separate applications for cleanup and reconstruction. For example, after Hurricane Sandy, the NY Rising Housing Recovery Program created a streamlined grant program that integrated cleanup, reconstruction, and over 35,000 contamination tests. 

Cleanup Is Climate Adaptation

When remediation is built into planning, what we rebuild is cleaner, safer, and designed to endure the next disaster. Insurers face fewer uncertainties, municipalities avoid cascading infrastructure and health costs, and homeowners recover faster with greater long-term safety. To create communities that can withstand a worsening climate, we must treat contamination prevention and cleanup as the foundations of resilience.

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