Impact of Climate Change. Members talked with james witt and Atmospheric Science professors about efforts to prepare for Natural Disasters which might result in change in weather patterns. The subcommittee will come to order. Without objections, the chair is authorized. This is our third in a series of Climate Change hearings, continuing with Natural Disasters. I recognize myself for five minutes to give an opening statement. Mentioned, this is the third in a series of hearings. History ofning the the Scientific Consensus of Climate Change and the Public Health effects of Climate Change in our first two hearings, the subcommittee turns to the impact of Climate Change on Natural Disasters. This subcommittee has three goals today. First, we are going to illustrate how Natural Disasters are made both more intense and more frequent to to Climate Change. Climate change israel and we are constantly reminded of that fact in terrifying ways. Just two weeks ago, it was reported that greenland lost 2 billion tons of ice on one day alone. 2 billion tons of ice lost in a day. And we have people telling us not to worry that Climate Change isnt a problem. The American People know better and they know because they are already suffering from the effects. Michael mann, a renowned climate scientist is here today to explain how and why we are seeing more intense hurricanes, more frequent wildfires, and devastating flooding. Our second goal today is to examine how the federal government could have responded better to the 20172018 state of Natural Disasters and the steps the federal government has taken to address these measures. As well as explore ongoing recovery challenges and not the point fingers and cast blame, but rather to get to the best way to improve performance in the future is to implement the lessons from past mistakes. Third, we will address how well assess how well fema and other federal agencies as well as local governments are prepared for not only the current wildfire season but also for the long term. Given that Climate Change is causing more intense and frequent Natural Disasters. Every single one of us wants fema to succeed and we want to make sure the agency has the tools and makes the changes necessary to do so. This subcommittee plans to have the acting deputy administrator of fema testifying here today. Past friday, fema informed us that they were uncomfortable with the structure of the Witness Panel and would not be able to make it to the hearing. In subcommittee staff contacted fema to try to work out a solution, we were informed that the doctor was an appeal unable to testify due to medical reasons. We wish him a speedy recovery. The subcommittee plans on having as soon as he is able. A member of this subcommittee represented if, katie hill was forced to evacuate her home last year as a stone fire ravaged her hometown. She and her husband were lucky enough to safely evacuate but many were not so lucky. Seasons,the past two 2017 and 2018 were the two deadliest wildfire seasons in u. S. History. With major wildfires across at least nine states. It is also worth noting that these devastating fires also aggravate the impact of Climate Change through the release of large quantities of Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases into our atmosphere. Hurricanes harvey, irma and maria hit houston, the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico within just a month of each other in 2017. The consequences were devastating. We often hear our colleagues on the others of the aisle that we act like the sky is falling. In this case, the sky was literally falling. Hurricane harvey was the wettest storm on record. Dumping 33 trillion gallons of water on the greater houston area. The secondalso costliest hurricane on record, second only to Hurricane Katrina, inflicting approximately 125 billion dollars in damages. Irma cost more than 65 billion and knocked out power for as many as 60 million 16 Million People. Maria was the deadliest storm in puerto rico since 1928, killing more than 2900 americans. Puerto ricans faced massive food shortages. Puerto rico reported a 200 46 increase in suicide attempts from november 20 17 through january 2018, compared with the same timeframe the previous year. The only hospital on one of the islands was destroyed by maria and two years later, it still has not been rebuilt. Could go on and on about the demonstration devastation. Remember feeling the same way in august of 2005, watching the shocking footage of Hurricane Katrina. That was 14 years ago. I know some of us dont want to believe it but these recordbreaking storms and wildfires keep coming. Responding to Natural Disasters is a much different beast than it was when fema was founded in 1979. One of the reasons why Response Recovery has gotten more challenging is because of Climate Change. In march of 2018, fema removed references of Climate Change from its four year strategic plan. This decision is baffling. If we all know Climate Change is happening, shirley it should factor into longterm strategic planning. Owntrump Administrations NationalClimate Assessment expects that the intensity of hurricanes, wildfires and floods will increase as Global Warming continues. So, we need to face the problem meet the needs of our fellow americans. , topve here with us today Emergency Management officials. We are going to let them tell us what they have seen and learned. Almost two years after Hurricane Harvey, irma, what did their communities look like . How are people faring. What more needs to be done . How can we and Congress Help them get the money they need and how but rebuild their communities to be more resilient, equipping them to better handle the next disaster. It is not a question of if, it is a repeated question of when, when, when. John don famously wrote that no man is on the island entire of himself and every man for the piece of the continent. A part of the main. When one part of america suffers, we all do. When people in houston, puerto rico, the Virgin Islands, and california lose their homes and their sense of stability and community, we all feel it. I want us to come out of this hearing today with a plan to diminish the suffering. We are dealing with massive steaks and it is literally a matter of life and death. At its core, that is exactly what the series on the effects of Climate Change is all about. Life versus death. The choice is clear and we are determined to make the right one. Thank you very much. I now invite my colleague to give a fiveminute opening statement. Good afternoon and thank you chairman for holding this hearing today. This committee has a long history of bipartisan oversight when determining national examining the federal response to Natural Disasters. This includes back to Hurricane Katrina and more recent efforts just last year looking to enhance femas ability to respond. In 2017, hurricanes harvey and irma hit the United States. Combined with wildfires in california, the hurricanes created an Unprecedented Demand for federal Disaster Response and recovery resources. Geographical and other differences and areas of the country most directly impacted by each event presented unique challenges. Distinct challenges and required unique responses. Since 2017, Hurricane Season, officials from all levels of government along with countless businesses and nonprofits have worked to repair roads, remove debris, restore power, and rebuild communities. I want to thank mr. Curry from gao for agreeing to appear today. I look forward to hearing about changes and progress that fema has made to prepare for extreme weather and help localities deal with the aftermath since katrina and the 2017 Hurricane Season. I am interested also in use of federal agencies. Policy changes will reduce future vulnerability and empower communities and allow for quicker and more seamless recovery. I also want to thank dr. Curry and dr. Mann for providing testimony to the committee today. It is important to note that teams every major weather event in recent years is followed almost immediately by claims on cable news and social media that its occurrence is directly linked to Climate Change. This overheated rhetoric can serve as a distraction from focusing on the proper role of federal disasters which is why this hearing is convened. It is clear from recent Natural Disasters that many parts of the country are vulnerable. It is my hope that efforts to spur continued improvements in Weather Forecasting will lead to an ability for communities to better prepare. Still, Natural Disasters have been and will go to neue to be a be a reality of the world that we live in. Inevitably, the United States will face another devastating storm or Natural Disaster. That is why advanced planning informed by Lessons Learned from previous disasters is critically important. With that, mr. Child armen chairman, i yield back. Thank you. I would like to welcome our witnesses. Christopher curry, dhs management issues, u. S. Government accountability office, dr. Mike lee mann. Distinguished professor of meteorology. And dr. Judith curry, president , climate forecast applications network. Please stand and raise your right hands. Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give is the whole truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Please be seated. Let the records show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them. Without objection, your written statement will be made a part of the record. Mr. Witt, you are now recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony for five minutes. Mr. Witt thank you, mr. Chairman. It is my privilege to appeared the committee today. These issues involve how we Work Together to mitigate and respond to disasters. Ive dedicated my professional and personal career working with communities on this issue. I had the privilege to serve as director of fema from 1993 to 2001. President clinton recognized in the aftermath of a disaster, it was important that citizens could count on the government to be there when they needed it. I came to fema during the time when this philosophy was not often followed. I was tasked to rebuild an agency that several members of Congress Called for abolishing. On disastersgement like hurricane andrew. With strong support from congress and the administration, we proceeded to reform and rebuild fema. We were immediately tested with a devastating midwest flood of 1993. This flooding impacted nine states. We streamline our operations and responded well, but we wanted to engage individuals in a program t would with the support of congress, we engage local citizens and engage the program to buy out their homes in the flood area. In missouri, we bought over 4000 homes and one whole town. This town had flooded 41 times in its history. 18 businesses, 42 residents that all agreed to relocate. The only one that did not agree to relocate was the mayor. We initiated the program. The idea was to prevent people from becoming victims of disasters. We initiated a program in 1997 called project impact, building disaster resistant communities. The program provided seed money to communities if they would take four simple steps. Fivea community, identit hazards and communicate their actions to reduce hazards. We started out with seven communities and by 2000, we had under 50 communities in this program. We had communities wanting to join this program and they did not want any seed money but they wanted us to help them build a Publicprivate Partnership to eliminate risk. The last summit we had in washington before this program was in 2000. That was 2500 local officials and volunteers and partners that attended the summit. We had over 1000 corporate and Business Partners participating like nascar, home depot, and many others. It was a very successful program. One of the key supporters of this program with the private sector of the Financial Support of mitigation projects was a major success. Let me just say this, in closing, when i was director of fema, working with all the state directors and we had 340 president ial disaster at declarations that a years i was eight years i was there. 93 floods, 94 earthquakes, 95 bombings, pleasant numerous numerous hurricanes and tornadoes in between. One of the keys that helped states move much faster in local communities was i put in a policy working with each of the state directors from Emergency Management where they would do their damage estimate and get them to us as quick as they possibly could with the request for president ial disaster declaration. We would advance them 50 of the estimate upfront so they could get the debris removed, get contracts in place because they are going to be audited anyway. And then we would go back in and work on Damage Assessment to see if it totals the amount that they gave us. It made a big difference in the Recovery Efforts. They could recover much faster and much easier. One of the things that i think you consider looking at, because fema has a shortterm Housing Program. Hud has the longer term. Look at how you could get behind combine the hud program with the fema shortterm housing i think that could help. One of the things i would highly recommend is that fema be brought out of Homeland Security as an independent agency. There is too much red tape, too much bureaucracy, and it slows down the process. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to recognize mr. Curry. Mr. Curry thank you mr. Chairman. It is an honor to be here today. Since katrina, we have done work in almost every area that femas operation, and we have found that there is major progress but challenges, too. Unfortunately, the challenges and the risks we face as a country moving ahead or not want to make those challenges easier. 2017 was a historic year in terms of cost and impact, but i think it would be a mistake to look at that as a onetime event. 500 year floods seem to be happening every year, while fire wildfire seasons are getting longer, and our infrastructure is more expensive to repair. All of this is leading to additional disaster costs. Also, state and local capabilities are overwhelmed and the expectation for federal help is only going up. Since 2005, we found that the federal government has spent almost 450 billion on Disaster Response and recovery, and that is just not a sustainable path moving forward given our budget situation. I would like to dive into some areas on response. Our work on the 2017 disasters was a mixed story. In texas, florida, and california, we saw was the years after katrina led to the ability to handle and to deal with very big challenges that happened with harvey, irma, and the California Wildfires. We were able to evacuate numerous victims out of wildfire zones, flood victims of Hurricane Harvey and also restore power to 6 Million People in florida relatively quickly. That is the good news. The bad news is that the territories for puerto rico and the Virgin Islands, we struggled. I want to be clear, fema has provided extensive levels of support in both places. They provided more dollars in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands, but that just shows the size of the problem and the challenge that existed there. The other issue is the federal workforce that fema has. A number of our recommendations continue to be open and are just as solid today as we made our five years ago. I would also like to talk about recovery with the 2017 disasters. Anybody on this committee that has had a federal disaster in her jurisdiction understands that the federal recovery programs can be complicated, timeconsuming, and frustrating. We hear it all the time and talking to state and locals. Just two weeks ago, we found in a report that fema could do a better job of helping the elderly individuals and those with disabilities to more easily enroll in their programs. We continue to see problems and challenges with the fema public Assistance Grant. This is the largest pot of money that goes into rebuilding and it is one of the most complicated Grant Programs in government. It takes a long time for the money to get spent and there is a lot of backandforth. The lack of policies and procedures are confusing state and local officials and delaying longterm Public Infrastructure projects from being implemented. I think the slowness is a frustration for both fema and the state and locals, too. The last piece i would like to end with is talking about what we do moving forward with the se major challenges. We have talked about the importance of building disaster resilience. If we are going to spend this kind of money, how do we spend in a way that we are not going to have to spend it again. It is been a challenge. It has been a challenge. The federal government spends most of its disaster resilience dollars after a disaster which means it goes only two locations impacted by the disaster. And it essentially means that Mother Nature dictates where we spend our resilience dollars. I think we need to change that. There has been progress in that area they recently passed ccra, which provided fema an additional pot of money to allocate before disaster hit so we can be more strategic about where we spend it. Also, fema is starting to work on better plans to be able to invest those resilience dollars before the disaster hit so we know what to do and we are not just surprised after it hits. This completes my prepared remarks. I look forward to questions. Thank you. Just a point of clarification, you said a 450 billion, what was the timeframe . Mr. Currie since 2005. Is that fema outlays only are or are all costs associated . Mr. Currie that is federal Disaster Recovery and response costs. So no private insurance is involved in that number as well as infrastructure costs from state and local municipalities. Thank you. My name is dr. Mann. I have to say, i feel a little bit today like i am at the center of a currie sandwich. [laughter] dr. Mann the primary focus of my research is understanding the climate system. I was awarded the medal for the European Geophysical Union in 2012, Stephen Schneider award for outstanding Climate Science communication. An award for Public Engagement with science in 2018, Climate Communication prize from the Geophysical Union of 2018, and this year, i received the tyler prize for environmental achievement. I have authored more than 200 publications and four books. I am perhaps best known for my paleo Climate Research two decades ago that produced the hockey stick curve, demonstrating the unprecedented nature. My recent years have focused on extreme weather events. I would like to talk about the substantial progress that has been made in recent years. I would also like to emphasize that we are using the term Natural Disasters, but in many cases, there is nothing natural about the disasters. And that is what the research says. Oceans are warming from the buildup of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere from the burning fossil fuels. The strongest hurricanes have gotten stronger and we have witnessed the most intense hurricanes on record in the andes both hemispheres with hurricane irma, the open atlantic. Similarly long and devastating storm coming weeks later. Michael, my namesake, is now established as the latest landfall hurricane of category 5 in u. S. History and devastated parts of florida when it made landfall last october. The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has increased due to human induced warming which leads to have your rainfall, and we know that hurricanes are expected to increase and we are living that reality now. See levels are rising because , sea level melts rising is accelerating and storm surge from hurricanes rides on top of higher seas to infiltrate further into our coastal cities. Our own work has shown that the combined effect of mobile sea level rising and intensifying taken aes has sandylike storm surge from what would have been a 500 year event before warming of the planet, to a 25 year event and if we continue with this earning of fossil fuels, by the middle of the century, it will become a five year event. Stormeans a sandylike surge on average once every five years. Compound flooding and major hurricanes. 2017 withs in play in harvey and in 2018 with florence. Summer 2018 saw unprecedented drought, heatwave, and wildfires across north america, europe, and asia. You get worse flooding from coastal storms. Soil, more moisture into the atmosphere. Shifted theng extreme tale of the bell curve to get more temperature extremes, more frequent and intense heat waves. Think summer 2018. It is not rocket science, you get worse wildfires. Think about what were seeing in the western u. S. With and without human impact. A can investigate whether particular event was likely to have been made more frequent because of human caused warming. We are able to attribute certain events to the extreme nature to Climate Change. The scorching european heatwave last summer was made more than twice as likely because of human caused warming. The record rainfall in North Carolina with florence was increased by as much as 50 by human caused warming. Some of the impact of Climate Change are too subtle to be captured. We identified a key factor behind the rising extreme summer weather and 2018. We showed that Climate Change is causing the meanders in the summer jet stream to become more pronounced and remain locked in place for longer stretches of time. For example, a deep highpressure ridge is stuck in the western u. S. , you get extreme heat and drought and wildfires. Downstream, you get what we call a lowpressure center associated with unprecedented rainfall over large parts of the eastern u. S. Last your. Something very similar happening right now, this summer. Well, they love the point decided it for justification for in action. Uncertainty is the reason for even more action. We already know that the projection has historically underestimated the rate of melting and now, it appears they are underestimating the increases in extreme weather associated with Climate Change because of processes that are not well captured in the climate models. Uncertainty is not our friend. The time to act is now. Climate change is pain. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something, most likely also fuels. Do you conclude your comments . Absolutely. Excellent timing. Good luck with your new business venture. Recognized, oral testimony. Think the chairman, Ranking Members, and the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify today. Devoted four decades to conducting Research Related to extreme weather events and Climate Change. As president of climate forecast applications networks, ive been helping decisionmakers use the weather and Climate Information to reduce their vulnerability to disasters. Disastersx of weather is that they are the same time highly surprising as well as a predictable. We shouldnt be surprised by extreme weather events, when comparable events have occurred during the past century. The extreme weather events are now more treatment or intent is of manmade global army is symptomatic amnesia. The devastating impact of 2017 from hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria invoke numerous alarming statement about hurricanes and Global Warming. However, it is really mentioned that 2017 broke an 11 year drought in u. S. Major hurricane landfall. This was unprecedented in the u. S. Historical records. Of the 13 strongest u. S. Land , only threeicanes have occurred since 1970. Andrew, michael, and charlie. More of them occur in a single decade following 1926. Recent international and National Reports acknowledge that there is not yet evidence of change in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, drought, floods, or wild wires that can be attributed to manmade Global Warming. A written testimony sites chapter and verse from these reports regarding those specific conclusions. The updated wildfires in the western u. S. Since 1980 is partly caused by state and federal policies that have resulted in catastrophically overgrown forests. Comparable levels of wildfire activity were observed earlier in the 20th century. The u. S. National Climate Assessment report recognized the the dustbowl era of 1930s remains the benchmark for extreme drought and in the u. S. Historical record. Regarding future extreme weather. My Company Provides seasonal forecast of extreme weather for the 2019 hurricane and while our seasons. We expect an active Hurricane Season with a substantial landfall risk. Up to at least 2050, natural Climate Variability is expected to dominate future hurricane variations rather than any arming trend. The most important factor is the anticipated shift to the cold days of the this shift is expected to overall reduce hurricane and while are risks for several decades. With regards to projections to 2100, models from the laboratory in princeton show a substantial decrease in the number of hurricanes in response to Global Warming. The models show an increase of about ive percent in the maximum intensity of atlantic hurricanes. Owing to the large natural variability of atlantic hurricanes, any influence of manmade Global Warming would not be noticeable were a number of decades. Blaming extreme weather events on manmade Climate Change and vocus and only on what to do after lives and property have rum destroyed deflects understanding and addressing the real source of the problems, which in part includes federal policies. Possible scenarios of incremental worsening of weather and climate extremes dont change the fundamental fact that many regions of the u. S. Are not well adapted to the current climate regime. We have an opportunity to be proactive in preparing for disasters. Rather than focusing on recovering from extreme events, we can aim to reduce future by evolving our infrastructure, policies, and practices. Adaptation strategies that promote that prevent against extreme weather events while, at the same time, providing other benefits to human or natural systems. Apart from addressing infrastructure issues, improvements the federal and state policies can substantially reduce the damage from wildfires and hurricanes. Further, tactical adaptation practices incorporating tailored Weather Forecast products can help mitigate the damages associated with extreme weather events. Solutions toind their current challenges associated with disasters will be wellprepared to cope with any additional incremental stressors from future Climate Change. This concludes my testimony. Thank you, dr. Curry. At this time, the chair recognizes the congresswoman from california. Thank you so much. And thank you all for being here today. And 2017 and 2018, california. The two deadliest wildfires in state history and one of them was right in my district and in my backyard. Due to Climate Change, these wildfires in the American West will burn longer and stronger as time goes on. The former director of the air, climate and Energy Research program has said, and i quote there are no longer wildfire seasons, there are just wildfires all the time. Reality brings with it unprecedented challenges for federal Disaster Response. My question is, what challenges has fema faced that are unique to Wildfire Response as opposed to hurricane response . Great question. One of the things that has happened over the last ive years, we have seen more actual, federal disasters for wildfires then we have seen in the many years prior to that. That opens up another level of programs and resources that fema brings. A great example is housing. Responsible for providing shortterm housing for survivors. In california, we have problems that we have not faced in other parts of the country. Liketional Housing Options trailers, shortterm rentals, even hotels are not an option because they dont exist, you cant put them in those locations or frankly, rental properties are extremely expensive. Issue, particularly in california, is forcing fema and the rest of the federal government to rethink how we does disaster outings. That is just one example. Thank you. Follow up on that, during your tenure, what role did the agency play and Wildfire Response, and what percentage of your resources when you say you spend on fire response . Im looking for a comparison over time. One of the things that we tried to do, i dont know how successful it was, but we started trying to implement a fuel removal program, which would eliminate the intensity of the fire. Most of the land out there is government land. With the exception around some homes are one home in laguna , it was up on top of a mountain. Roofs on, het extended the house four feet, and the plaintiff fire resistant shrubs with the rock and the gravel around his house. His house was the only house that survive that wildfire. Theres ways we can mitigate, theres ways that we can keep people from becoming victims. One of the cities out there, oakland, i was at. There was a wildfire there and it burned 300 homes. Together andy came build back. And everything in that community was built fire resistant, less shrubberye rock, more , and they had a box at the corner of every block. And they did it right. Thank you. Left,t have a lot of time but fema has issued a report regarding the Agency Preparation in response to the 2017 hurricane reason. Are you aware of the similar report being done by fema regarding the response to the California Wildfires in 2017 and 2018 . Yes, i am. I believe it was finalized last week. Great, so we can expect to be seeing it soon . We have to ask fema for that. That you believe it is important for that report to be released soon. Absolutely, because the after actions are going to be very different than the ones from hurricanes. Of course. I want to make sure that we see are also examining issues related to femas response. Gao is conducting a review of the most response to six wildfires. Would current moment, how you assess deeper paradise for the 2019 wildfire season . Let me just say from a response perspective, and we talked i know they are standing behind me, the state of california about this. You know, we have heard great things about fema and preparations and response. The state and local officials tell us that fema is there, they give than all of the support and the help they need. The challenge area that we see is when you get into recovery. I mentioned the housing issue. Degree removal has been a massive challenge with fire because, unlike the east coast with hurricanes, you cant just move the house and start rebuilding. You have to excavate toxic soil. The degree removal challenge was a huge problem. I think they are still working through a lot of recovery challenges. I am all too aware. Thank you so much for your time, and i yield back. Thank you. Five minutes of questioning. Thank you, mr. Chairman. My questions will be directed to dr. Curry. Dr. Curry, there was a therandum that states following and i want to read this to you. Due to Climate Change, the number of hurricanes that of reached categories four and five in strength has roughly doubled since the 1970s and there are no longer distinct wildfire seasons, there are just wildfires all the time. With the claim stated in the majority memo, and to you think the Scientific Evidence supports those claims . Doublingegards to the of the number of category four and five hurricanes, i was actually a coauthor on that paper in 2005. Time, serious issues regarding theed quality of the data in the earlier part of the record, particularly prior to 1988. Aremost scientists disregarding the earlier data. Occurs jump really between the 1970s and 1990s. If you throw out the earlier data, you no longer have much of a jump. Article updated that with 10 more years of data, and they found a very small increase in the percent of category four and five. If you add 2015 and 2016, which in the study didnt include, the numbers go up because of the very big el nino year. Basically, in understanding this, we are hampered by not having a long enough data record to really interpret what is going on. What our recent international and National Climate reports saying about the links between andmade Climate Change wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts . I have cited this in my recent testimony. Specifically with regards to the u. S. , the National Climate assessment, based on the historical record, did not find links between flooding, heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires, and so on. Basically, by virtue of their being periods earlier in the with at least as bad statistics, in some cases, much worse like the 19 30s for heat waves and droughts. Term as ae used the way of describing the current Public Statement among some scientists and politicians that extreme weather events are now and frequent or intense attributable to manmade Global Warming. Can you discuss what you mean when you use the phrase whether amnesia . Weather it doesnt even take long to forget. We had a bad tornado spring this year, a lot of tornadoes. But nothing particularly unusual with regards to previous years. 2012 and 2018, the tornadoes were way below average. All of a sudden, we get one bad year and that is Global Warming. And 1970s were a very benign period for bad weather, but you dont have to go back far to get some seriously bad stuff in the 50s and the 30s and so forth. This is my last question in this series. I wanted to mention the California Wildfires. I own a lot of forest when in kentucky. Private land. We manage our forest land. We dont have forest fires out there. I say that and i will get a call saying that it got a on some of my land right now. But many people have suggested that a big part of the problem in california while wires is a lack of Forest Management, the fact that there is so much debris underneath the trees that fuel the intensity of the fire. Mr. Curry made the statement that most of that lengths federal land, so there are a lot of rules and regulations that prevent Forest Management. I just wanted to know your thoughts on that. I have heard one of my clients, the emergency manager for a Regional Power provider, went out to california to consult with pg e after all that. He said, the whole state is a tinderbox. Evenyou cant remove if h three falls over and dies, you cant remove it. Of course, it is going to blow. Be some regulations that can be changed so all that can be cleared up. Announced that i was testifying in this hearing, i got emails from several firefighters in california who emailed me and said tell them it is not Climate Change, it is these crazy regulations allowing people to build houses where they shouldnt, allowing all of this to build up. We need to do something. Blendings on Climate Change is just sort of wasting everybodys time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to the panelists for being here. In march of 2018 under the fema 11 itof long, all Climate Change from its plan. In the 30 congressional districts that i probably represent, we know Climate Change is happening, we see it all the time. We have had one of the wettest years on record with widespread flooding across my district which recently forced the governor to declare a state of emergency. Just to make sure this is a question for all of you on the panel, is there anyone on this panel believes Climate Change is not really happening . Ok, thats wonderful. Changee believes climate is occurring and yet fema removed all references to it for the next quarter years. This decision concerns me greatly. An agency tasked with responding to natural, weatherrelated disasters cannot remove all references to changes in climate and expect for you all to do your jobs or for the department to do their job. Fema pretending Climate Change doesnt exist is not an actual plan. Andformer director of fema as a climate scientist, does it concern you that fema removed Climate Change from the plan, and is it important for fema to commit to an reporting Climate Change in their longterm planning . A i think Climate Change is big part of what we are seeing today. Last month, we had 500 tornadoes. A year ago, there was 240. We just had a historic river flood on the arkansas river. It was the biggest flood since 1945. Than 1945. Et higher farm, weve got six inches of rain in two hours, which has never happened. We have seen 10 to 20 inches of rain in oklahoma and in the midwest. It is causing an extreme amount of plotting. So, we are facing Sea Levels Rising and from california to the east coast, that is part of change. The ocean is warming. We are having more hurricanes because the ocean is warming and their much stronger and much more devastating. There, do you think that the fact that femas effectiveness in responding to Natural Disasters, when they choose not to consider Climate Change discovering deciding on a treatment plan . I dont think it affected their response to disasters, i think it affects them in the way of the longterm planning and how to mitigate it. So, that has to be a qualifier. I wanted to correct a number of alice is that weve heard here today when it comes to the connection between Climate Change and extreme weather events. First of all, you sometimes hear about their having been a supposedly hurricane drought and there is some sleightofhand going on there. Superstorm sandy was a strong category 3, and it became a category two off the coast of the u. S. East coast. It did go, as they say, extratropical. Longer acally was no hurricane, but it was spinning off the east coast for several days as a strong hurricane building up a very large storm it was thes we know, storm surge that was so devastating to the jersey coast and new york city. It is extremely misleading when you hear statements like that. Namesake, michael, my is one of a very small number of landfall in category five hurricanes, the latest in the season we have ever seen that. There is a clear Climate Change. Thank you. Misleading comments seem to be a norm and im trying to make sure that i dont allow anybody to think it is ultimately. Byjune 14, emails obtained clearly show the culture of climate denial in the trump white house. A member of the president S National Security council in the chair of the reported White House Panel convened solely to question the Scientific Evidence on Climate Change seven emails to the institute, a Climate Change tonight Interest Group that he wanted to figure out a way to make his ideas more useful to a wider readership. He also emailed nasa administrators to say that nasa should systematically sidestep the science on Global Warming. If i may, i would like to introduce emails into record. I wish this wasnt shocking, but unfortunately, part of the course of his administration in the white house is money groups conspiring to deny reality and build misinformation campaigns designed to threaten the future of our children. With that, i yield the rest of my time and thank you for your important conversations. Thank you. The chernow recognizes congressman higgins for five years of questioning. You mentioned in your opening statement, you refer to disaster resilience and premedication investment. You strike me as a gentleman of great common sense and background. I asked you each, is it a wise investment of the peoples treasury as we look forward regarding response to disaster, that, as a nation, we invest in premitigation strategy in disaster resilience as opposed to a proactive response, i post Disaster Response . Generally speaking, would it be a wise investment of the peoples treasury for us to shift the strategy . I think all of them are what wet, but i think found, and i know it is something you understand in louisiana, we are already spending the money after the disaster. Again, i have limited time, generally, did you agree that as a congress, we control the purse, should we place a greater emphasis on free mitigation, disaster resiliency . Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Dr. Curry, you have explain your position on Forest Management. Many of us agree. We have allowed fuel to accumulate at the base of our forests, especially on federal lands. We are seeing tremendous forest fires as a result. The reference reminds me of Hurricane Harvey, i deployed civilians into texas in rescue operations. The last gentleman we rescued was on a thursday night i was able to bridges of paid in. I had to return to louisiana. It was about 2 00 in the morning. Gentleman. An elderly when he found out i was a congressman, because i certainly he camelook like one, to me and wept. I have, congressman, lived here since 1978. He said, we have never flooded. He said, i have seen this much neverfall, but i have seen this much water rise. And just made it Crystal Clear nation, at the local, state, and federal level we have failed to maintain our Water Management systems. My office places a great emphasis on this successively. More waterdropping we have failed to maintain our systems. In Forest Management, its the same thing. You have homes burning not because lightning is striking more often or people are more careless about fire, but because fuel toallowed this accumulate. We should respond to that, as a nation, but common sense. Disasters,atural Climate Change, on a geologic timescale, i ask any of you, has earthsen any time in history according to earth science, yes or no, according to the geologic record and earth science, has there ever been a time when the earth was not experiencing Climate Change . Anyone say no to that . Will take that as a yes there is certainly sufficient record to show the window we are it 100,at here call 150 years, is very narrow, regarding communications and awareness. We all have instant communications worldwide. 150 years ago, how would an american in california no that louisiana had experienced know that louisiana had experienced a hurricane . Someone in new york know that in california they experienced wildfires . There is a great time difference. As a congress, it is our job to respectfully listen to the wisdom staff presented to us from both sides of this argument. And i suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Can i answer your question . What question, sir . The just asked about how do we know about the past history of hurricanes and wildfires . I am reclaiming my time. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I recognize congresswoman ocasiocortez. I will letu, doctor, you respond. Regarding hurricanes, i coauthored a journal where we used sedimentary deposits, behindch deposits left by ancient hurricanes. We can reconstruct the history of land falling hurricanes along the u. S. East coast, along the caribbean. We have a rich archive of information that tells us the increase in intensity is without precedent as far back as we can go. With regard to wildfires, a group of tree ring specialists years ago reconstructed the history of wildfire, as well as drought, in california, and they are finding the increase of wildfire and drought within the last decade are without precedent, as far back as those records go. Let me also, if i may, comment on this claim the gentleman will yield it is my time, thank you. I asked the gentlelady. The chair recognizes representative of cause you cortez. Recognizesr congresswoman a casio cortez for her time and the time will be restored due to interruption. Mr. Chairman. I appreciate, despite the attempts to take my time away where there is no statute or that is appropriate or acceptable. So, the Puerto Rican Island is eight miles away. Hurricaneath of maria, my grandfather died and the island is where 9000 american citizens live. Stillamericans are suffering today, almost two years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. 9, 2017, an individual whose name has been redacted emails the lead official in puerto rico. This person wrote we have limited to no communication. Without the grid, no cell tower or landline is available. Internet Service Needs power and like it or not, this is the means of global communication. A water system is currently run on emergency generators. The keyword here is emergency. Power. Ed regular without Potable Water and sewage treatment, we will get sick. This email was forwarded from a different email address and the fema administrator at the time was copied on this email. Rights, i individual know you have at a rough time in houston, but at least you have competent people in charge of the response. We have incompetence people in charge here and they are getting no response to our urgent needs, first of all, restoration of power. If you are leaving the response to Hurricane Maria, what would have been your plan to restore power. Not in place at the time that it happened. Let me share this with you. Hit the virginyn islands. I flew down there. It destroyed power, water, infrastructure, airport, and we were able to get things up and running extremely fast. Thank you. I also want to ask about the whichs only hospital, was destroyed during the storm and to this day has not yet been rebuilt. The New York Times published a story in april of this year that wereted pregnant women forced to travel by boat or eightto the big island miles away to give birth, while the alices patients had to travel three times weekly by boat or plane for more then a year after maria hit. Remains to this malt. Shuttered wreck of when you were director of fema, was it a priority to rebuild hospitals destroyed by hurricanes . Yes, it was. Earthquakes as well. Theres a company we work with that is in mozambique right now that can fly in a hospital that they set up is a 500bed hospital, as well as mobile clinics. Thank you. Is there anything fema could be doing now it is not currently doing to rebuild Critical Infrastructure like hospitals importer rico . You know, i have been to puerto rico several times since the hurricane and done some work down there, particularly in the housing as well as the energy side. Its hard for me to answer that question not being there in the middle of it. Different . E done it i dont know. I cant tell you because i have not really looked at the problems or what happened there. I understand. I yield my time to the chair. Im sorry, did you yield back . The chair grants you in additional 30 seconds. Thank you very much. As Climate Change worsens, we note Scientific Consensus and modeling more in my mental disasters are likely to occur, correct . Absolutely. Fema is the federal Emergency Management agency. Its primary responsibility is in the shortterm and Emergency Management of Natural Disasters, correct . Shortterm and longterm. Shortterm and longterm. Do you believe that the agency prepared to accommodate for sea level rises and other changes from Natural Disasters . Time has expired, but you can answer the question. I think a lot needs to be done, particularly on the training side and new employees that have come on board. We had a very, very important when ig program establish fema and rebuilt it. I think also, with the amount of people they have on board now with 500, 600 fulltime employees. I think they almost 5000 now. They had 220 federal disasters in two years. I had 340 in eight years. So you can tell its changing very quickly, and Climate Change is a big part of it. Thank you. The chair recognizes myself for five minutes of questioning. I would like to start with just making sure we level set here. There has been some discussion, as the Ranking Member is suggested, that after a Natural Disaster or a significant storm, there is media that says it occurred because of Climate Change, and hopefully that is not happening and i have not seen anyone actually say that. I would agree that if it is being said its incorrect, but what is correct, Climate Change is causing storm and weather events to be bigger, batter, meaner, and more often. Is there anyone on the panel that disagrees with that comment . Dr. Curry does not currie does not agree. You do not agree . Question wasyour specifically with regard to Natural Disasters and extreme weather events. You believe that humankind is causing Climate Change . Believe istist not in my vocabulary. Do you have Scientific Evidence that i believe in the assessments. Burning fossild fuels with that arguably increased temperatures into our atmosphere . Yes, but the question is how much with natural variability . Can we agree that the burning of fossil fuels impacts Climate Change . And Global Warming . Despite what dr. Curry has said, there is robust consensus and the reports she refers to demonstrate theres the impact on human Natural Disasters. When she talks about these Natural Cycles and she referred to the atlantic multidick kaegel oscillation. I coined that term. It is based on research i published. More recent research by my group and myself has shown that what many of the scientists are tribute into a natural cycle is in fact just to the impact of humans on the climate, but the irregularity, because we had an increase in the blocking of the 1950s to the 1970s, so there was a plateau, it accelerated when we passed the clean air act. An get what looks like oscillation left over, but is not a real oscillation. Its the irregularity of our impact. You mentioned cleanair. Limates change Global Warming aside, is there anyone here who does not think renewables over fossil fuels would improve the air and the health of americans . Thats good to see. Can you elaborate on a better understanding of the Economic Impact due to a change Global Warming as we continue with the hockey stick as dr. Mann pointed out . Currie we look at the physical risk to the federal government, and we ultimately mean the taxpayer. Disaster aid is when i talked about. Heard 50 billion, taxpayer money, that goes from the federal government to state and local entities. But its not just disaster aid. National Flood Insurance is backed by the u. S. Taxpayer. Its 21 billion dollars in debt. Thats after 16 billion was a race year. Its an insult and program. Moneys not take in enough to cover its costs. From at goes on and on financial perspective. I see conversations on wall street asking that certain bonds taken to affect the inherent risk of Climate Change. They are certainly saying the impact. On future homect sales. Often this will not be factored into what we look at when we look at the impact of the storms. I have a few seconds here left. Is there any other consistency not addressed . Y i believe it was our there to suggested were scientists to very carefully look at the impact of and what they if you look at the tripling, and yes, there has extent ofpling in the wildfire. No more than that can be explained to other factors. Storm that perfect vastcreates with wildfires. Before . Did humans do and burn. Thank you. As the witnesses are switching out, please be aware you may receive additional written statements. We will take a short break and we will welcome our final witnesses and get started again. Thank you for being here today. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the quick change around. Thank you for your patience. We have the chief recovery officer for the city of houston. We have the director of the Disaster Recovery authority. We have the director of the andfornia Governors Office resilient,r for the wealth of puerto rico. Do you swear with regard to the testimony you are about to give, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Let the record show the answered in the affirmative. The microphones are sensitive. Please speak and to them. Without objection, your statement will be made part of the record. With that, mr. Costello, you are recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony for five minutes. At mr. Costello thank you. My name is stephen costello, for the record. I am the chief recovery officer for houstons mayor, stephen turner. I have provided written testimony, so my Statement Today will be highlighted issues. 2016 and 2017 houston had experienced 100year floods all three years. The hurricane impacted not just. Solated areas of houston now our people live in fear every time there is a forecast of rainfall. This leads us to the main question of todays panel. Are we safer today than we were preharvey . This assessment is based on Recovery Efforts that i will highlight in my testimony. He city has taken the lead we cannot just build back from failure. We must build for future resilience. I want to highlight what the city has been doing than harvey. We have some of the most restrictive floodplain ordinance is in the nation, requiring all new structures to be constructed to hundred feet above the floodplain, which is contrary to fema standards. If these rules were in place prior to harvey, 84 of the homes that flooded during harvey would have been protected. We also revised our design criteria for future development and its impact on neighbors. In 2018, the voters of the city of houston passed and reauthorized 6 billion funding specifically geared toward drainage. Was same year, 2. 5 billion approved by the residents of harris county. The city also developed a Green InfrastructureIncentive Program to encourage Green Infrastructure. We are in the process of preparing a Climate Action plan and working on a citywide resiliency plan. So thats what the city is doing to try to get to resiliency because we have to do our part. We cant rely on the federal government. Relate tos will recovery. Houston interfaces with two , hudry federal agencies and fema. My comments will focus on fema, but i want to say this on behalf of mayor turner. Roleally appreciate the that federal government plays during a disaster and we want to thank fema for everything they are doing, but i want to talk about public assistance. Femas public Assistance Group provides for reconstruction and mitigation efforts on cityowned facilities. However, extensive document verifications present major these in obtaining dollars for recovery. We have estimated over 2 billion of impact to our facilities, and as of today, only 306 million are in the process. Please know that 160 was advanced to us immediately after harvey for removal and sheltering, which was described and they changed their policies years ago for that and we appreciate that. But in 22 months weve only published an additional 22 million for recovery. This is not going to be one or two. Years. It will be five or six years. Fema had given the state of texas millions of dollars in grant projects. We have yet to get one dollar for the city of houston. Were in thects that process of being done. The way that the federal government can help is to allow applicants to do preaward andvity, to allow freezing construction because the process is focused primarily on two phases. You design and permit a project and then you go to construction, and where these projects can be particularly when you are seeking right away and acquisition of property. I will conclude my testimony and look forward to further questions. Thank you, mr. Costello. Good afternoon, chairman. That will work. Good afternoon. Williams and i am the director of the office of and i welcomeery the opportunity to provide an update on our Disaster Recovery from Hurricane Maria. Isween 19 Hurricane Season one that is been faced with great trepidation and the residents of our territory have a greater understanding of preparedness to we are still vulnerable. The infrastructure is still compromised. Efforts preparedness validated shelters and confirmed plans for the dissemination of there have been messages sent to all of the Department Heads to the Hurricane Season. The office was established in february 2019 and serves as a center of coordination for our Recovery Efforts. Efforts are it for fullbore to bring our Critical Infrastructure and facilities online. Opened a facility on the island of saint john. We are completing the damage descriptions to finalize funding for the repair of the hospital. Otherwise this cannot be provided by our health care facilities. This has a detrimental Financial Impact on the Public Health system and muchneeded revenue to support our institutions leave with this leave for these patients. Session by back into pointing out the temporary modular classrooms. We continue to work with fema to forove industry standards the replacement and repair of all of our schools. Engineering work has commenced for the underground power lines. Housing remains an area of great concern as we still have families living in comparable families with compromised roofs heard with tarpaulin that have exceeded their life expectancy. Repairve been able to homes, but over 3500 homeowners still need repairs. This is slated to address the remaining homes. The provisions of the bipartisan budget act of 2018 provided special consideration for the complexity of the Recovery Efforts in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands. The additional assistance along with the inclusion of additional damages and replacement calculations and the additional supplemental appropriation of Disaster Relief will prove invaluable in our efforts towards resilience. The territory is working to provide strategies to mitigate the effects of Climate Change. Developing a comprehensive mitigation and resilience plan for the territory. The plan will be the result of a multisectoral effort that implements the principles of resilience, sustainability, and climate adaptation. The territory understands the potential for the territory of storms and automated the ibc and irc building codes. This will ensure the territory is building to the latest standards. Additionaled guidance for reconstruction. The drought monitoring began this month. The territory is still a long way from recovery. Navigating through the bureaucratic maze of available federal funding is daunting and relief is never provided as quickly as needed. The 2017 hurricanes not only wreaked havoc on our infrastructure, but the Virgin Islands as well. The projected revenue loss from the storm is a proximally 500 76 million. Projects funded under fema Public Assistance Programs are expected to cost 5 billion with total of 500 million. Thank you for this opportunity, and look forward to working closely with our federal partners to continue moving our recovery forward. Thank you. You now have five minutes for oral testimony. Great. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me today to provide you all with context and perspective on californias challenges as we continue to recover from a series of climate driven disasters. California has been severely impacted by climate events in the form of drought, atmospheric rivers, floods, and major wildfires. All recordsetting events. Over17 and 2018, we had 3,000,008 burned in california acres burned in california. Fatalitiesed in 160 due to disasters. The camp fire in 2018 was the most destructive wildfire in californias history. 19,000 homes and businesses destroyed. More than 30,000 peoples displays. People displaced. The loss of an entire town, including Critical Infrastructure and businesses. Californias wildfire season is now almost yearround. Climate change acts as a force multiplier. The most impactful drought lasted between 2011 and 2017. That has set up dynamics for ongoing fire situations. The tree mortality phenomenon that has killed over 147 Million Trees throughout the state has compounded the risk of megafires. 15 of the 20 most distractive fires in california have occurred since 2000. 10 of the most destructive since 2015. Since 2017, we have received nine major president ial disaster declarations. Six were for fire. Three wherefore atmospheric rivers and storms. Counties were included in major disaster declarations. For california to receive a major disaster declaration, there has to be at least 60 million in Public Infrastructure destroyed. One significant challenge is the issue of debris and debris management. Debris management is not like hurricane debris. The degree includes massive amounts of toxic material, asbestos, and the material of the homes incinerated down to the ground. It includes concrete, steel, cars, fuels, and other hazardous materials. Debris removal is essential to the overall recovery of disaster affected communities. More than 4 million tons of debris has been removed from public and private property since 2017. Largestisted in the debris since the 2006. That was a big deal until 2018, the camp fire resulted in the single largest Debris Mission ever managed by the state. Over 2 billion and costs to clear up than 22,000 sites. The impacts to individuals have been profound. Californians000 have been assisted by Disaster Recovery centers. I want to thank fema for their tremendous partnership. Fema has been a great partner for us. 28,000, more than households were approved for fema assistance. In 2018, more than 31,000 californians were eligible for individual assistance registration. 2017 2018, california established a longterm housing task. California party has a housing shortage, and disasters make that much worse. When you lose an entire town within area of less than 1 vacancy and to the fire, you have a major problem. You have a homeless problem. For survivorsons need to be scalable and civil to diverse populations and geographics come environmentally sustainable cost effective. The direct Housing Program revolves around manufactured housing. It is in School Approach that needs to be modernized. Survivorsards event from placing these may choose on their own property, identifying suitable locations is costly, and the cost to deliver and hook homeght single mobile ranges from 100,000 to 500,000 or unit. This money could be better spent expanding into more flexible areas lastly, i want to talk about quickly some Lessons Learned. One of them is in the area of Emergency Communications with the public. Our Cellular Networks are not hardened to withstand Natural Disasters. This was highlighted in 2017 during the fires. In 2018, we saw a total of 189 cell phone sites go offline. They were off for many days. They hindered the ability to get to 911. I need you to wrap up. I will stop there and be available for russians. Minutes of oral testimony. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the puerto rico recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. It is my honor to be here today. Hurricanes presented several serious challenges. Our amazing beaches and agriculture are extraordinary geographical teachers. Even the role of tourism and culture in the economy, billions of dollars of revenue loss. Just as importantly, willrability infrastructure this body addressed with a onetime allowance legislation to reset our most Critical Infrastructure to industry standards. We cannot thank you enough in recognizing importance of being good stewards of this taxpayer investment. The storms taught us the lives and safety of our residents as well as the environmental state depends on the local capacity to topond to each new emergency a timely response from the federal government. We will continue to grow and develop with fema. Much be clear, we are appreciative of the help we have received from the federal government, including fema. Withnths into our recovery over 100 billion in damages, we are aware that Climate Change is making Natural Disaster more frequent, underscoring the need to build back. Puerto rico remains especially vulnerable to the impact of Climate Change due to our unique geographic position. This includes among others inconsistencies and guidance with respect to section 428, a recent change in the way fema will perform its role in the management recovery, causing additional delays, reducing recovery, and competing our ability to meet deadlines. A failure to agree on a definition of industry standards and a refusal to allow puerto rico to use its own engineers as was done elsewhere continue to create the impression that we are not permitted to aid in our recovery. Unfortunately, this is not in the experience of rhetoric of your while we remain a territory on the goodwill of this hallowed body despite every effort of august to help us recover, puerto rico has 46 permanent projects. Over the same timeframe, 13,000 forects were approved Hurricane Katrina. Is optimistic determined, and full of potential. We must Work Together to protect our planet. Puerto rico is a leader in mobility and sustainability. We have social responsibility to do so. Our goal is simple, avail ourselves of this mutual opportunity to reimagine and rebuild puerto rico so we can develop its full capacity for the 3. 2 million citizens who live there. The responsibility we share with the federal government and we remain committed to execute. Thank you. Thank you. Can you clarify one thing . You said the number of projects that have been funded. When i referred to the figure, i am referring to fixed cost estimates that we have agreed with fema. You compare them to mississippi and louisiana. Projects comparative estimates that we have finalized right now for section 428. Thank you. The chair would like to recognize congresswoman toby. Communities increasingly face threats from Natural Disasters and the destruction that comes with them. You know that local and state governments alone are not equipped to handle the response. Toesidents need more help rebuild after their homes flooded. We need federal resources to respond to the crisis at those scales. We have specific federal agencies and programs designed to do just that. But the system breaks down in federal government refuses to do their job. One of the concerns i have is that fema is holding onto billions of dollars in aid that has yet to reach our community. I would like to ask each of you how much money from famous public Assistance Grant has been awarded to your community, and how much have you actually received. I will start first. We received 160 million post Hurricane Harvey for debris removal, which was what we call expedited funding. We have only received 23 million to date. Can you also say how much was assistance, public this is a 90 federal share, 10 local share. Each project, we negotiate with fema on the recovery costs similar to what puerto rico is describing, we anticipate north of 460 individual projects. Project iswater another project. Projects that 25 we have agreed to. The balance of them are still in the negotiation process. Two years. Yes, maam. Recovery,through which is one of the initiatives , of the 55emented billion that fema has estimated for the public assist program in puerto rico, roughly 10 has been obligated. 6 ut 5 of that amount, only , 65 has been just as. Sectionperating under 428. That is essentially 97 of the funding is for emergency work. Operating under these categories for the last 21 months. Given the fact that since 2012 with 16 president ial disaster declarations across the world, i cannot tell you today exactly where and how much. I can tell you from the standpoint of working with a Public Assistance Program that has changed in the middle of these disasters, which has resulted in a lot of complexities has drawn out the time at which we were able to get reimbursements. Typically it is a situation where i would have to lean in. There is a lot of work that can be done to streamline the Recovery Process by really cutting through a lot of beer accuracy. How much in Community Development block grants have you been awarded with them and how much have you actually received as well. If you could beat specific, one of my colleagues is asking what you are asking for and what the relief is for. Billion on 1. 3 housing recovery from heart. We are waiting for the new guidelines for the mitigation dollars the state of texas is anticipating 4. 3 billion in mitigation. We understand there are some delays. One of those reasons is is a housing agency. We understand this. One of the things that always gets lost in Community Hearings is the human impact. What is this done on the ground . What are the impacts and Recovery Efforts for the families in houston . Is on thewhat happens Community Development block grant site, we are getting our moneys now to families in need of home repair, home reconstruction. The mitigation dollars that we are waiting or will be money that we can do Capital Projects to provide flood protection to the investment of those housing dollars. Mold, . Living with no, some of these people are living in homes that have been repaired. We have reached out to over 15,000 people post event knocking on doors. We have not done over 100,000 doors to see if people are interested and needed the help they need. We are doing an active role in reaching out to people. Thank you so much. Thank you. The chair recognizes congressman higgins for five minutes of russians. Thank you. With theamiliar institute for Rehabilitation Research in houston . Yes i am. After Hurricane Harvey, did it flood . I dont believe so. Whyd you explain to america the hospital in houston did not flood . , if you look at Hurricane Harvey, there are areas of the city that did flood and areas that did not. I will highlight one federal project that was recently completed on the Southeast Side of town that had virtually no flooding. It is really a function of where the rainfall occurred, the intensity of the rainfall, and the capacity of the existing stream. Interest of time, i appreciate your response, do they have a floodwall and locates built around the hospital . Did they assist First Responders with their own Communications Center in the wake of Hurricane Harvey . If you are referring to the entire medical center, they did not flood because of the improvements they did for Tropical Storm allison. Im getting at. Thank you for your service. We have to constantly remind ourselves and our colleagues that there is no such site as federal money is the peoples treasure. Every dollar we have has been seized from the paychecks of working americans. As we invest the treasure and Disaster Recovery, it is important that we consider premitigation efforts. Was no right or wrong answer to that question, the point is that a hospital in the middle of houston had taken efforts on its own to protect itself from future flooding. It was very helpful in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. I would suggest we all consider things like this. Disaster in the continental United States, wherever it is, we are no stranger to hurricanes. Get tos always a way to the impacted area because it is on the continental United States, but when puerto rico was hit in such a devastating and many oftruck me my friends and colleagues in louisiana wanted to help prepared to help, were there to help. And yet the ports were locked up with a that could not make it inland in puerto rico because there was damage to the roads. There is no means by which to make beach landings. There was no specialty barges to make beach landings to bring supplies that were available immediately, there was no way to get them across the beach as on to these areas that were impacted through roads that were usable. Traingo, the link project causeway was built in the 1960s. It is referred to as the worlds longest bridge. Because of the construction of this bridge inside of louisiana, occasionally, a section will get knocked out by a barge, so we did not take long for this to happen, and now it is mandated on both sides of this bridge that segments of this bridge are standing by and ready to be previous because of loss. This is the kind of common sense that we need. My question is for obvious , we need torto rico help. Please give us an answer regarding his puerto rico considering measures to take to be prepared to better received the goodwill and assistance of the world in the wake of a future disaster in the form of . Ving a beachhead thank you. One of the strategies that we were assessing with fema was the fact that we are a multiport destination. We are a small island. We have the longest runway. We have support in the south. The after action assessment was the fact that we have facilities across the island. We just have to coordinate in an effective and efficient way out only with the state agency that the federal agencies. Even though we have the impacts of Hurricane Maria, we were able to open the ports 48 hours afterwards. We had a bottleneck because we and receiving high seas federal ships that had to stay at the bay when the coast guard closed. Haveimple answer is we multiple facilities across the island that we need to use anymore was the way. We are working with federal partners and state partners so that we can use the rosie rose bay for Construction Materials and also as a platform for help with the neighboring island. Answer is we are working and making sure that something theens, thank god navigation shadow of the san juan bay was not obstructed. Happens, the complex story will be thursday. Thank you. I yield. Thank you for your indulgence thank you. The care recognizes congresswoman spirit. Thank you all for being here. I would like to start with you mr. Marrero erie. We hear a lot about puerto rico, and yet we dont know precisely the condition of the island as it relates to the people. How many people are still homeless . 20,000. Did you say 20,000 . 20,000 families that number is being revised across the island to make sure they are prioritized. How many hospitals are still in operable . Let me make it a little bit easier. Right now there are no hospitals whose roads or houses being built permanent as permanent work. No permanent work is being done in puerto rico 2000 schools are still waiting to be repaired. Schools are in disrepair. Yes. Were still waiting on a final determination to move forward with hospitals. Not . As failed, has it those are my words. Maybe you should not answer. To be completely honest and objective, i think puerto ricos recovery has been the most complex response in u. S. History. The fact that we are an island has been even more complex i think the challenge has been present on the mainland and in puerto rico. Fema has not been able to manage it. All right. One of the things the president said was that california does not manage its forest lands well. If i remember correctly, the u. S. Government owns most of the forest lands in california. Could you give us the specific numbers . That is correct. Roughly 70 of the lands are federal lands in california, and they are managed by a number of federal agencies. If you were to assess the condition of those various federal lands as to their preparedness for yet another firestorm, how would you rank them . I think probably different parts of the state have different threats. , driven bym are fs the drought and the number of dead trees. Some of them are probably in the to d level. If we were to ask you for a list of preparatory steps, would you be able to do that . I would say the efforts we have ,ndertaken, Governor Nixon actually investing a significant amount of resources to go and and do clearing, making sure on federal lands . On state lands. I understand you are doing a lot on the stateside. What potentially happened this summer is a fire will break out on federal lands and gravitate to state lands potentially. Areink the federal agencies doing some work in the area. They are simply not resourced appropriately and lack the funding to be able to do anything significant. If you could provide us with steps you think the federal government could be taking to manage 70 of the forest lands in california, that would be helpful. Can you tell us more about how you are adapting your wildfire preparedness Response Strategies to the new conditions such as Climate Change . There are a number of new initiatives underway. The first is we took a very aggressive assessment of the state, looking at the highest threat areas, tier one and two, which are high and extreme fire threat areas. How they correspond with the urban wildland intermixed. We leveraged all resources to come on deck to work with local governments to be in force building Defensible Space, doing evacuation planning. We have been working on new for alert and warning capabilities so all local jurisdictions have a common alert andor doing warning to the public. We have increased the number of resources. Engines, helicopters, personnel. Funding Community Groups like Fire Safe Councils to build preparedness within their communities. My time has expired. If you could put a number on that for us now or later, that would be helpful. Thank you. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member for five minutes for questioning. The chair nowi would like to foh what miss speer was talking about in california. Mr. Gilligan g, are you familiar with the bill that passed the house last year pertaining to Forest Management sponsored by congressman westermann from arkansas . It dealt with Forest Management and how to potentially alleviate the problems with the lack of Forest Management in california. Reasonll for whatever did not make it through the farme and i was on the bill conference committee. We tried to put that language in the farm bill to allow better Forest Management practices in california erie there was intense opposition to that language being added by several members of the california delegation. You are not in congress, know if, but i did not you are familiar with that bill and if you have any thoughts on that bill because we had people that were coming in to testify to us with Utility Companies saying that there is a theory that the campfire started was struckree limb by lightning, ignited the fire with lack of Forest Management, and it quickly spread, but there are regulations in california that dont allow Utility Companies to cut tree limbs along the lines, and just a lot of excessive unnecessary regulations that have unintentional consequences. There is a lot to that question. Let me just say that on the camp fire, which it has been determined that that fire was started by a downed power line. Conditions are we have to look at. What thee than just status of the forest is. In the case of the camp, the town of paradise and surrounding communities have been awarded several recognition awards for being the most fire resilient communities. The fact is the fire started in the upper canyon, and the conditions that night were so extreme, the most extreme that many of us have seen in our entire career where it blew that fire into a community that was managed appropriately. I think you have to take each one of these that has its own signature to it and look at it. We would agree in california that there have been regulations that have been restrictive. Many of them have been changed. Governor brown and Governor Newsom have executive orders to streamline the issue of being able to go in and do some Forest Management. With the utilities, working with them to be able to clear Defensible Space along their power lines are it is a new norm. It is something we all have to look at in a broader context with regards to preevent and postevent Hazard Mitigation. I think you would find bipartisan support in congress if you try to work with california to reduce the Regulatory Burden to try to better manage the federally owned forest lands there. Ask,ext question i want to i share your frustration with fema being slow on paying their bills and obligations. Kentucky,t western the western kentucky area along the Mississippi River that has experienced loading, and we get a lot of calls from disgruntled local officials that have not received fema funding. Withnk has been a problem fema. Dot are some things fema can besides the point you make of trying to process their transactions quicker . And besides more funding, what are some things fema can do to needs of people that have been negatively affected by disaster . I was hoping someone would ask me that question. I have a chart. It is hard to see. It has five separate steps associated with one project on public assistance. Within those 45 steps you go through two separate audits inside fema, and then he goes to be for an audit. If it is over 1 million, it grows to a congressional group. It goes back down to the state, who is a recipient for a fourth audit for the city gets the funds. It is not the people that work with him fema. They really want to help the communities. It is the process. Theres something wrong with the ross is on the public assistance side. That is the problem we are having. Thank you. The chair recognizes myself for five minutes. Mr. Gallagher g, as you know, im from Southern California and very concerned about wildfires in Southern California and throughout california and the west. I want to make sure we clarify a couple of points. My understanding you mentioned earlier that 70 percent of california are federally controlled lands, that my recollection on the fires, it was approximately 90 federal lands that burned. My correct . Many of the fires we saw the last two years were on federal lands it may have started in federal lands enrolled into state responsibility area. There were a number of state lands as well that burned. I want to make sure we have the proper narrative because sometimes we see in the press and some of the comments that california laws and regulations are causing some of the issues here. Are you aware of any california state law that usurps federal management of federal controlled lands . I am not. Thats what i thought. We recognize the federal government has control over the federal lands in california and 49 other states. Is that a correct statement . I think so. Talknd i had a chance to earlier today about an area of concern for all of us in the u. S. , and that was you talk about the ability for proper communication during Natural Disasters and making sure we have appropriate verifications for Communications Systems. Outlook for you to elaborate on that and what we experienced in california when those Communications Systems go down. Thank you. Needis something that we to really think about. We as a society are generally moving 100 on these devices. We are off of land lines and onto the Cellular Network to we become dependent upon getting all of our information on these devices. The system that manages these devices is not government owned or controlled. We really depend upon this for lifesaving operations. As we move forward, we are finding these catastrophic events that it is not just california and the wildfire. I talked to my colleagues were they have seen similar kinds of failures. System,liency of the the backhaul, we talking about the fiber lines is not as hard and as it needs to be, something i call Public Safety brain. It is not just People Living there, it is First Responders as well. We are all depending upon this. And verizon and all the other majors are partners with us. They provide resources when we need them. That is different than what were talking about when we talk safe orking forests Hazard Mitigation, we also need infrastructure to be hardened. We are seeing too many failures in the system that we count on the most. I would just say it is an area that needs to be improved. It has to be done very fast because we are seeing cell sites go down. We are trying to get evacuations out. All of that is getting to the public. We have a public that is not able to get that information. Earlieriggins testified , we will make sure we have the appropriate infrastructure in place to better address these events. I want to go back because that chart was fascinating. I want people to have a better understanding that went fema does come in and provide immediate support, that is lifesaving support. There is a long process to get back to normal times for these communities. It sounds from the testimony here today that it is taking years to get proper funding in place to get back to normal. In my correct . We anticipate this is a five to eight year program to recover on the public assistance side. Think you said 1000 schools have not been reconstructed or still to give you perspective of the money that has been dispersed for puerto rico, 25 million has been dispersed. That is essentially adding architectural design. No school has been permanently fixed now housing has been permanently fixed. When did that hurricane occurred . 21 months ago. 21 months ago. Thank you. I want to turn it over to the vice chair. Thank you. I would like to not recognize my colleague congresswoman ocasiocortez. Thank you, madam chair. Are these patients in puerto rico, are there patients still receiving medical care and temporary facilities, yes,. Why has it taken so long to rebuild these facilities . I dont know if you are weiliar, but in puerto rico, have section 428. It was added to the stafford act after sandy. It is essentially the alternative procedure that we need to follow in order to get the reimbursement process for fema. The big businesses that before you can initiate any permanent , theyfema and the state all have to agree on the fixed cost estimate. It works like a grant. Agreeate and fema have to on how much money you can have before you can start work. Also the fact that section 428 is a subtitled program. We are defining the claim as we apply. Ok. Colleagueson what my said earlier, he said there were 20,000 homes still using tarps. That is an estimate. How many roots still need to be repaired roads still need to be repaired . Approximately 1600 miles of roads. Not a single mile of road has been permanently fixed to not a single home either. Yes, maam. 108 in the program. It was only temporary. Single home has been permanently fixed, not a single road has been permanently fixed. Through the Public Assistance Program. Under the Public Assistance Program, youre correct. Not a Single School has been permanently fixed under the fema program as well. I wanted to clarify some inconsistencies because i think it is very important for the American People to understand the correct facts in this situation on the state of recovery. We heard the president say last month, he tweeted that puerto rico has been given more money Like Congress for hurricane Disaster Relief, 91 billion. Is this figure accurate . That toy one figure of make sure i have the correct facts. Internalon was an estimate by the omb. That was an estimate of how much it will cost. That was an estimate of the cost. For 10 to 15 years. They have not been given 91 billion dollars. Only 41 billion of that has been appropriated. Only 11. 2 billion has been dispersed for emergency work. The answer is the figure is not accurate. How much of the aid allocated to puerto rico reached the territory . 11. 2 billion. That is emergency only. Essentially. Lastly, when i was last on the island, i visited communities that developed sustainable recovery plans on their own because there has been no longterm permanent recovery and investment that is effectively reached many communities on the island. Insured. Ar panels were people started installing solar panels. That way if another hurricane more to come, the community would have an energy resource. How have the people of puerto rico responded to this disaster on their own . When you talk about the puerto rico people, the only word that will come to mind is resiliency. Even though we have faced some money challenges, and even those children still waiting for schools to be repaired, thank god no riots happened. Islandl see across the cords, a lot of electric helping your neighbor. People started helping each other. People helpits, people. We are what we are. Puerto rican. They are still waiting. People are still waiting. Very patiently. Juncturee are at that where we are talking about people, children. Children are not able to learn in a healthy environment, and 20,000 families are still waiting for decent housing to protect their family. Thank you very much. I yield back to the chair. Madam chair, with all due respect, i have to catch a plane. Yes, i was like, who is talking . Of course. Thank you for joining us. Without objection from the representative best guess from is full committee authorized to participate in todays hearing. I would like to recognize representative basket is. They giving much. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today. Williamsto ask miss about the Recovery Process in the Virgin Islands. Hadderstood we know we damage to both of the hospitals. Can you tell us what the assessment is . There are only two hospitals and one clinic in the Virgin Islands. What are the assessments now . Croix one hospital on st. Has gotten authorization for replacement. Hospital, we are still working on getting damage descriptions work through with fema. We have the temporary facilities the clinic isat now performing services there. One of the key issues we are having, basically as much as puerto rico has stated that we are working on several things from fema that will allow us to move forward, so we are in a holding pattern. Cost escalation factors. We must agree on what the cost escalation factors would be over the life of the disaster and recovery. Once we agreed to the fixed cost estimate, that is the cost will have to live with throughout the disaster until the project is finished. We are still waiting for fema to provide that to us. Until we are able to do that, we are unable to move or with any of our permanent work in the territory. Lets go to one of the hospitals. That fema agreed it needs to be replaced. That means it was more than 50 damaged. When did that agreement take place . We have only agreed to that last month. Months just agreed 20 after the hurricane that the was hospital on st. Croix damaged more than 50 . Correct. In the interim, that means it must have difficulty in performing its function. We understand there was supposed to be a modular unit, which was agreed upon that would take the place. Is that modular unit in place . No, the modular unit is still being worked on to be put in place. We are still working on that. There is no modular hospital. Islands, the major that modular unit is estimated to be in place at what time . The rate we are going, it would not be until spring of next year. Another year before the temporary modular would be in place. Obviously a hospital that is not functioning entirely as it should. How many operating rooms is the hospital right now . We have one functional operating room. St. Croix is the island that i live on. I know we had a major car accident this weekend where there was one fatality. Were brought to the hospital, as well as a shooting where individuals eventually succumbed to the shooting. How does the hospital function when there is one hospital and when operating room one operating room . The situation is very critical. As you mentioned, if we have more than one emergency at one time, we are at a loss to be able to provide services. We continue to airlift our residents to other facilities in order to get acute care. You know that cannot happen quickly. The next nearest destination would be puerto rico or miami. I am going to use this time outlining the situation the Virgin Islands is facing to tell us what would be best for us to help you to facilitate this because as you and i have spoke, the saying we have in the Virgin Islands, a closed mouth doesnt get fed. Virgin islands have a habit of muddling through things, being proud, not being the type to complain. If there are challenges you are facing, if you could enlighten my colleagues to what we can do so we can figure out how we can facilitate how to move things along faster. Thank you for that. The overall pace of the recovery has been very slow. For us to movety forward in the process, whether it is fema funds, Hazard Mitigation was, the cbdgr funding, the process is absolutely frustrating, confusing, and slow. We have been asking fema and working with fema to allow us to move forward on some of the appeared over the time it takes for approval of the things we have asked for, strategies we have developed, we request approval for those strategies to the federal agency, and it takes an inordinate amount of time for us to get a response back, sometimes making that strategy knowledge and void because we have missed a window of opportunity. We are continuing to see that. The fact we are not able to get any of our projects moving toward, whether it is a school, roads, critical facilities, hospitals, even housing communities. We are at the point where we are waiting on cost escalation factors from payment. We are waiting on from fema. We are waiting on cost share. All the guidance we have been given, we continue to expound the importance and depreciation we have for all the legislative reform regarding Disaster Relief. Until we get guidance from hud or fema, we are unable to access those new authorities, so when we have these legislations go forward, we ask that specific timelines be put in place to ensure these federal agencies do things in a timely manner, allowing us to access the authorities that have been granted. Thank you for that response. Thank you for your indulgence and allowing her to respond. Recognize like to congresswoman velasquez for five minutes. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this important hearing. For some of us who come from the islands, i come from puerto rico. I grew up in puerto rico. Formerorking for the governor of puerto rico when hurricane hugo impacted the island. Frustrated, just i do not understand why it has taken this long. To see not a single permanent. Roject is in the pipeline Homeland Security held a hearing just the other day. We had the acting administrator indicating that the andonsibility for the day the reimbursement to municipalities in puerto rico or the effective implementation was due to a lack of capacity and communication. Can you please explain to me what type of communication do you maintain with fema, and what betweenn the challenges both agencies . Thank you for all the work on behalf of the people of puerto rico. I am a little bit appalled with those declarations. Since day one, we have been working very diligently in making sure whatever has been , the document we provided in 2017, while we were responding to the immediate needs of the people of rico. We were required to thousand eight to develop a full recovery plan. We did it in collaboration with fema and other agencies. We made it consistent with the fiscal plans. We were required to establish centralized authority with the Central Office of recovery based on the model of new york, new jersey, and many other locations. We were required to hire thirdparty experts because we did not have the knowledge and expertise even though we have managed federal funding in the past. We ended up having a topnotch team. Are you telling me there is no reason as to why the money has not made it to puerto rico . Why, by the way, we did all of that, and because of that, we were able to take over the reimbursement process. Control thee, fema reimbursement process in puerto rico as opposed to other states. Why is that . You have done everything you have been asked, and yet the people of puerto rico are puttingd to the delay, lives at risk once again. About the hospital. Bfs forow hospital used military practices. They are using environmental contamination puerto rico. The navy was out of there under george w. Bush, promises were are with still here we a hospital that is not operational. With a challenge of the lack of transportation for the people to go to the mainland puerto rico to get medical services. All i have seen is a press release that was put out by fema after first they say we are going to rebuild, build a new hospital, and then they combine and say were going to rebuild. Have, i complained, and i demanded a new facility, and recently they issued a press release saying they can. That they should have a new hospital. Have you received any form of communication from fema . No. We are waiting on the final determination number. Of federal that 90 contract spending for Disaster Relief and recovery has been awarded two firms on the mainland, i would like to know what youre doing and what plans you have facilitate local contracting. We have the best engineers. Have great Construction Companies in puerto rico that have done work in other caribbean islands. We need to provide a level Playing Field for those Puerto Ricans to be able to get thank you. You can go ahead and answer those questions i could not agree more with you. With afrom a family momandpop shop. That is how we were able to move forward. Even though there is some constitutional limitation, we want to make sure this is not just about Disaster Recovery. This is about economic recovery. What we have done, first of all we have increased the minimum wage in the far as the action plan we develop, we also included loans and other mechanisms to local companies to have a bandwidth to participate in the process. Many requirements will require some requirement a local company will not be able to satisfy. Make surerams to local companies are wellequipped. We have to make sure we get it right there once significant funding is used, we have to make sure the people of puerto rico are trained. They are topnotch professionals. If something happens in california, new york, florida, then we can still participate. It thank you. I ask all of our witnesses to respond as promptly as you are able to do this hearing is adjourned. Later today on newsmakers, stephanie talks about the organizations strategy and priorities heading into the 2020 elections. Group, founded in 1985, aims to elect democratic female candidates to political office. That is at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Or listentch online on our cspan radio app. Live programming monday. Cspan will have economic sanctions against north korea focused on peace. That starts at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Forum a christians united featuring secretary of state mike pompeo and National Security advisor john bolton. Day, the senate convenes in the afternoon to work on nomination to the ninth Circuit Court of appeals. Cspan3 an event. Later, the release of a report on the impact on authoritarian governments, terrorist groups, and criminal organizations through National Security. Tot, a hearing on efforts protect children and others from hazardous products. Child safety advocate or among the witnesses at this Health Energy and commerce subcommittee hearing. Good morning. The