As the recent National Climate Assessment made clear, extreme weather events are becoming more severe, and vulnerabilities remain despite advances in disaster preparedness.

On Sept. 17, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition. The competition promotes risk assessment and planning and will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for future storms and other extreme events.  Funding for the competition is available to communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years. It is provided through the Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery appropriation under the 2013 Disaster Relief Appropriations Act.

Given the complexity of the challenge, HUD will partner with the Rockefeller Foundation to help communities better understand the innovative and multi-faceted approach required to increase resiliency. As in HUD’s Rebuild by Design competition, the Rockefeller Foundation will provide targeted technical assistance to eligible communities and support a stakeholder-driven process, informed by the best available data, to identify recovery needs and innovative solutions. The six winning projects selected through the Rebuild by Design competition in June 2014 serve as models of how philanthropic resources and the federal government can be leveraged to support communities recovering from disasters, while also strengthening their ability to withstand future disasters. Read more.