Federal funds can help relocate those increasingly in danger of repeated disasters, but help can be hard to come by

"More than 13 million Americans may need to move by the end of the century because of sea-level rise. Add the effects of hurricanes, riverine flooding and wildfires, and millions more will need to seek out safer parts of the country — or remain trapped in damaged, dangerous conditions," Alex Lubben, Julia Shipley, Zak Cassel, and Olga Loginova report for the Center for Public Integrity, Columbia Journalism Investigations, and Type Investigations. But "communities across the country in the greatest need of government assistance receive less of it — if they get anything at all." Most are small, rural, and have disproportionately high populations of racial minorities.

"For decades the federal government has known that climate change will force people in the U.S. to relocate. And the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm, recommended in 2020 that the government form a 'climate migration pilot program' to help people who want to relocate due to climate change — a recommendation it reiterated in March. But in the absence of such a program, communities across the country must try to cobble together funding from across federal agencies through programs that weren’t designed for the climate crisis," Lubben, Shipley, Cassel, and Loginova report. The reporting project "spent a year digging into the growing need for climate relocation across the United States. Little organized government assistance exists for preventing the loss of homes and lives before a disaster, the investigation revealed — and there is no comprehensive focus on helping people escape untenable situations."

The analysis showed dozens of communities nationwide that have suffered repeated disasters. See how your county stacks up in the searchable database here.