SSurvivors of extreme weather disasters in the United States face long waits for government aid funds to rebuild their lives, with the last long-term rebuilding funds allocated for Hurricane Milton that hit Florida two years ago. Government officials estimate that more than $10 billion is needed in long-term disaster recovery funding to rebuild affected communities in Los Angeles County and St. Louis, Missouri alone.
Demetrice Davis’ home in north St. Louis is still suffering damage from the EF3 tornado that ravaged the area in May 2025. “Insurance didn’t cover much. And Fema just supported you for a little while, but didn’t get you back on track,” he said. “Government agencies aren’t really doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Survivors of three disasters in 2025 – a tornado in St. Louis, flooding in the Texas Hill Country and wildfires in Los Angeles – are still waiting for long-term recovery assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud). Under the Disaster Reconstruction Program (CDBG-DR), these funds typically help finance the rebuilding of homes and neighborhoods after Fema emergency assistance runs out. The last disaster for which CDBG-DR funds were distributed was Hurricane Milton, which struck Florida in October 2024. Since then, no disaster has benefited from CDBG-DR money.
Since 1993, more than $111 billion has been allocated to CDBG-DR. But the long-term recovery program has no permanent funds, meaning Congress must appropriate the money on a disaster-by-disaster basis. This has already led to long delays in financing the recovery. Survivors of the 2020 earthquakes in Puerto Rico waited 655 days after the disaster was declared for CDBG-DR funding to be allocated, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center. In July 2026, CDBG-DR was enshrined in law for the first time, authorizing the program for three years. While advocates hoped the legislation would create a reliable framework to distribute disaster relief funds more quickly, no additional money was appropriated for the CDBG-DR program.
It’s been 21 months since the Los Angeles wildfires were declared a disaster and survivors are still waiting, said Sylvie Andrews, who lost her home in Altadena. “Finding out that your own country can’t even do what it has historically done for other disaster survivors is very disheartening, and it’s also what drew me to get involved,” she said. Andrews and Davis were part of a group of disaster survivors from Rebuild: the National Disaster Survivors Association who traveled to Washington DC last month to ask their legislators to fund CDBG-DR for communities trying to recover from disasters.
“There are people in Congress who are reluctant to pre-fund anything when they’re not sure there will be a disaster, and the reality is there will be more disasters every year because of climate change,” Andrews said. “I guarantee there will be communities that need it.”
“It’s just a matter of asking, as a taxpaying citizen, what are we paying for? Davis spoke about his conversations with lawmakers. “As a taxpayer, we’re putting money in the pot. We’re supposed to get some form of return. But it seems like that’s not happening. And there seems to be a lot of excuses and passing the buck because most of the legislators we’ve spoken with have placed the blame on other legislators.”
Climate catastrophe survivors with Rebuild have made three trips to Washington so far. During each trip, survivors had conversations not only with their legislators, but also with each other. Learning about the experiences of other survivors in California and Texas who also did not receive long-term recovery funding stayed with Davis. “I just hope we’re all whole at some point,” he said. “It’s devastating to not be able to go home, or to go to a neighborhood that you grew up in and are expected to look a certain way. I’ve been in this neighborhood my whole life. Some of the homes that were destroyed have been there since I was a child.”
According to an analysis by the International Institute for Environment and Development, approximately 137 million people lived in areas of the United States affected by a disaster in 2024 alone. In a 2023 national survey by Fema, 54% of people reported that they or their family members had experienced the effects of a disaster. This shared experience could be a powerful tool for repairing the disaster recovery system in the United States, said Ginny Goldman, co-founder of Rebuild.
“We have people from rural areas and urban areas. We have people from both parties. The disaster wiped all that away,” she said. “Everyone in this country is a disaster survivor or will be one very soon. We can all come together and build the system we all deserve.”
For example, after Los Angeles County wildfire survivors spoke with Democrat Judy Chu, the congresswoman wrote a letter alongside three other lawmakers urging Fema to release more than $6 million in additional funding for the federal agency’s previously approved Disaster Management Program (DCMP). After weeks of sustained pressure and the looming threat of a major funding breakdown, Fema agreed. On October 7, the agency released the final tranche of DCMP funding.
“Suddenly we saw another 6.6 million coming in,” Andrews said. “So it was a small victory, but basically we still have a long way to go.”
“I welcome today’s release of funding for survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, but let’s be clear: This is funding that FEMA had already approved and that we have been demanding the agency release for weeks,” Chu said in a prepared statement in September. “And while there is progress today, President Trump has still not provided the long-term federal disaster recovery funding that Los Angeles communities need to rebuild.” »
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