New Research Finds Increased Payoff from Disaster Resilience Investments
Every dollar invested in disaster resilience today could save communities up to $33 in lost future economic activity. This powerful finding comes from a new report from Allstate, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
The report, Beyond the Payoff: How Investments in Resilience and Disaster Preparedness Protect Communities, models scenarios across five disaster types—hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and droughts—to show how upfront resilience investments save jobs, preserve the workforce, and protect local economies.
Key findings and recommendations:
- When communities reduce resilience investments, they risk facing more than 30 times that amount in lost future economic activity over the next decade.
- Resilience funding offers economic protection and stabilizes local labor markets, regardless of size or type of disaster. In hurricane-prone areas, investment can prevent the loss of more than 70,000 jobs.
- Local efforts matter. The report outlines six “Levers of Resilience” that local leaders can use to strengthen preparedness, from infrastructure upgrades to community engagement initiatives.
The report also offers eight recommendations for communities looking to boost resilience, ranging from infrastructure improvements to expanding partnerships and enhancing community engagement. Of particular interest to ASFPM members are these recommended actions:
- Strengthen Local Planning for Hazard Mitigation: Proactively update local plans, zoning ordinances, and building codes to incorporate specific hazard mitigation requirements.
- Use Risk Data to Drive Decisions: Improve access to risk data for informing planning and implementing resilience scorecards and dashboards to track risk reduction.
- Create a Dedicated Fund for Mitigation: Establish a non-lapsing local fund for pre-disaster mitigation to ensure consistent investment in risk reduction without waiting for federal disaster declarations.
What practitioners are saying
Released in tandem with Beyond the Payoff were results from a national survey that ASFPM members participated in earlier this year, along with other emergency managers, engineers, and resilience experts. The survey found that state governments are viewed as the best prepared to deal with natural disasters compared to local and federal authorities. However, while respondents expressed strong confidence in state and local government’s ability to handle “typical” disasters, there was broad concern that no level of government is adequately prepared for large-scale or multiple simultaneous disasters.
Roles of different government levels
- A significant majority of respondents (at least four in five) believe that local and state governments should play a major role in all disaster phases (preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience-building).
- While fewer respondents believe the federal government should play a major role compared to state and local governments, a majority still said the federal government is a key player.
- The primary role of the federal government is seen as providing financial assistance during disasters. Other forms of support, such as logistics and operational coordination, ranked much lower.
The survey also underscores the need for stronger coordination between the public and private sectors. Many respondents felt current efforts are poorly aligned, and most agreed disaster funding should be distributed faster and coordinated more closely with local agencies.
