Biden doubles FEMA funding for hurricanes, storms

President Joe Biden announced Monday he is doubling U.S. emergency spending to help communities prepare for hurricanes and other extreme weather events, while launching a new effort at NASA to better understand and track the impacts of climate change.

Speaking at FEMA headquarters during a briefing on the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season, Biden said, "We all know these storms are coming and we're gonna be prepared. We have to be ready."

The $1 billion in spending being announced Monday is a small fraction of what the U.S. spends on weather-related disasters. Last year alone, the nation endured 22 separate weather and climate-related disasters with losses greater than $1 billion each. The disasters, including wildfires, hurricanes and snowstorms, had a cumulative price tag of nearly $100 billion.

2021 has already had significant winter storms that caused a deadly blackout in Texas and other states and underscore the damage caused by climate change.

Forecasters predict the Atlantic hurricane season will be busier than normal, but is unlikely to be as severe as 2020's record-shattering year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week that the hurricane season, which runs from June through November, will likely see 13 to 20 named storms, including at least six that will become hurricanes and three to five categorized as major hurricanes with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kilometers per hour).

Under Biden's announcement, FEMA will provide $1 billion for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which helps states, local communities, tribes and territories to develop projects to prepare for and reduce risks from disasters and natural hazards.

The steps being announced Monday are part of Biden's pledge to elevate the importance of climate change as a major priority. Biden has set a target to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. He also has said he expects to adopt a clean energy standard that would make electricity carbon-free by 2035, along with the wider goal of net-zero carbon emissions economywide by 2050.