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From the outside, federal disaster relief looks stuck in the dark ages.
Before aid money can flow to communities ravaged by storms, floods, or wildfires, someone has to estimate the damage. Today, that is still mostly done by “windshield assessment”: officials drive into disaster zones, often on blocked or unsafe roads, and eyeball the destruction from their cars.
Satellite imagery, drone-based video feeds, and machine learning models could combine to paint a more accurate picture, faster — and shorten the time between initial assessment and disaster fund payout.
As today’s guest, Melissa Roberts, told the House Science Committee in September, every day aid is delayed means more small businesses close and more lives stay on hold.
Melissa is the Founder and Executive Director of the American Flood Coalition, which brings together more than 500 mayors, local officials, chambers of commerce and civic groups across over 20 states. She launched the coalition in 2019 after a year of meeting local leaders who understood their flood risk but had no realistic way to act on it.
In this episode, Melissa explains the many reasons why federal disaster response lags in adopting technology: procurement rules that lock agencies into the same vendor for up to a decade; disaster spending spread across 130 separate federal programs; and the absence of a single body responsible for innovation.
Her proposed fix is a disaster innovation center based at a national lab, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This center would grapple with the big questions across hazards, such as where adaptation and disaster response investments could save the most lives, and act as the public’s expert when negotiating contracts with tech vendors.
Melissa also explains why federal data needs to be accurate and interoperable before AI can make use of it, and highlights the state-level tech initiatives that are already saving lives, preserving assets, and making communities more resilient.
Listen by clicking the link below, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Thanks for listening!
Louie Woodall
Editor
