New measure of climate balance: Disasters are now common in the United States

A new report has found that 90% of all counties nationwide have suffered a major disaster since 2011.

WASHINGTON — The growing toll of climate change in the United States has been measured in lives lost, buildings destroyed and dollars spent on recovery. But a report released Wednesday uses a different metric: Which parts of the country have experienced the highest number of federally declared disasters?

This designation is reserved for disasters if serious, they exceed the ability of state and local authorities to react. The report finds that such disasters have become extremely common.

From 2011 to the end of last year, 90% of US counties experienced flooding, hurricane , wildfire or other calamity severe enough to receive a federal disaster declaration, according to the report, and more than 700 counties have suffered at least five such disasters. During that same period, 29 states had, on average, at least one federally declared disaster per year somewhere within their borders. Five states have experienced at least 20 disasters since 2011.

Figures exclude disaster declarations related to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Climate change is here," said Amy Chester, chief executive of Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit that helps communities recover from disasters and which prepared the report. "Every taxpayer pays for climate change."

This does not mean that climate change is hitting all parts of the country to the same degree. Wealthy, populous cities are often better able to withstand the shock of extreme weather events. By focusing on disasters declared at the federal level, the report is able to even out these differences, offering something close to a true accounting of the places most exposed to climate shocks that they cannot cope with alone. /p>

At the top of this list are five counties that have each experienced, on average, more than one disaster per year since 2011. These counties are concentrated in two areas: the southern Louisiana (where counties are called parishes) and eastern Kentucky.

Louisiana surpasses the rest of the United States in another respect. Over the past decade, the state has received more federal disaster dollars per capita — $1,736 for each resident — than anywhere else in the country, according to the report. Only New York State comes close, at $1,348.

But the burden of climate shocks extends beyond the Gulf Coast and of Appalachia. Since 2011, California has received 25 federal disaster declarations, including for wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that resulted in $2.5 billion in federal funds to rebuild public infrastructure. Mississippi and Oklahoma each suffered 22 disasters. Iowa has had 21, mostly for severe storms and flooding

ImageThe aftermath of the 2018 Carr Redding, Calif., fire.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Even in states that are not typically associated with conditions extreme weather, some counties experienced frequent calamities. Fairfield County, Connecticut, which includes Greenwich and Stamford, has received eight federal disaster declarations since 2011. Grafton County, in central New Hampshire, has had seven. Morris County, N.J., in 30 miles west of Manhattan, had nine.

Not all types of disasters are associated with climate change. For example, it is not known whether there is a link between rising temperatures and the earthquake...