FEMA funds delayed by Trump admin leave rural towns in peril : NPR

Key Points:

• Duryea, Pennsylvania, faces increasing flood risks due to higher water levels in the Lackawanna River, driven by development and climate change, necessitating a three-foot raise in the town's levee for adequate protection.
• Despite the urgent need, Duryea has been unable to secure federal funding to upgrade the levee because the Trump administration withheld billions of dollars for disaster preparedness, delaying access to crucial grants.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to restart its largest disaster preparedness grant program after a lawsuit, but competition for funds will be intense and timelines for disbursement remain uncertain.
• Small rural communities like Duryea rely heavily on federal funds for infrastructure projects but often lack the local resources or tax base to finance such costly upgrades, with the levee project costing about three times the town's annual budget.
• Political shifts and administrative changes have created mixed messages and uncertainty about FEMA’s future funding priorities, especially regarding climate-related projects, posing challenges for vulnerable small towns seeking disaster resilience support.