Article

Killer Heat: The Disaster FEMA Refuses to Own

Robert R.M. Verchick

Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law, Loyola University New Orleans.

For comments on earlier drafts, I thank Dan Farber, James Goodwin, Hannah Perls, Landyn Rookard, and Sid Shapiro. For their excellent research assistance, I thank Abby Wallace and Keemiya Pourmonir. This research received support from the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.

Extreme heat, also known as a “heatwave,” is by far the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States. In 2023, extreme heat took 2,300 lives—more than all the deaths attributed to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires, winter storms, and floods combined. Harms from extreme heat, which are especially severe in disadvantaged communities, will only increase as the climate continues to break down. Despite these facts, in more than 70 years of comprehensive disaster response, no president has ever declared a “major disaster” based on extreme heat, nor has the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ever recommended he do so.

This Article examines the need and justification for a more robust approach to extreme heat by FEMA under the Stafford Act. I conclude that—given the severity of extreme heat events, their disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations, and the broad protection promised under the Stafford Act—immediate action is needed. It would be best for Congress to revise the Stafford Act and create a whole-of-government approach to fighting extreme heat. But in the absence of Congressional action, FEMA must own the problem. The agency should take action to increase the chances that states and Tribal governments threatened by extreme heat can receive their fair share of disaster funds, including individual assistance, public assistance, or hazard mitigation funds. Lives would be saved and suffering relieved.

The Article makes both an ethical case (building on the author’s earlier “disaster justice” writings and incorporating Martha Albertson Fineman’s “vulnerability theory”) and a legal one (drawing from the purpose, history, and implementation of the Stafford Act). Congress has granted FEMA and the President considerable discretion in addressing extreme heat, and they should act to safeguard our communities from extreme heat.

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