We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on disaster response as a country – extraordinary costs that could have been avoided. Multiple studies have shown that a fraction of what the US spends after disasters could be invested beforehand to prevent damages. In fact, each dollar invested in prevention and resiliency saves at least four dollars in disaster response costs. But government seems to be stuck on stupid: instead of making these investments on the frontend, it continues to reactively hemorrhage resources after disaster strikes. Now is the time to flip this paradigm, to get good at resilience and to make our communities, economies and ecosystems more capable of withstanding disaster.
In Louisiana, we’ve lost over 2,000 square miles of our coast – an area larger than the state of Rhode Island – putting our communities more at risk. But we’re fighting back: the State of Louisiana proactively invests hundreds of millions each year toward our $50 billion Master Plan to restore what we’ve lost and to better protect our residents, our homes, businesses and our way of life from future disasters.
I am excited that the [coalition] has been formed to lean into resiliency and to help raise the national importance of spending smarter on disaster management.
Garret Graves is a fromer Congressman from Louisiana, whose south-central district includes Baton Rouge and most of its suburbs, extends to Houma in the south, and reaches Lake Pontchartrain. He recently finished his second year as a Congressman for Louisiana and has more than 20 years of experience working on energy, infrastructure, fisheries, maritime, and water resources issues.
Graves sits on the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Natural Resources, as well as the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. He is the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation.
In addition to his policy expertise and years of private sector work, Graves served as Louisiana’s Chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, where he managed one of America’s largest civil works programs in history. Under Graves’ tenure, Louisiana constructed more flood protection infrastructure and restored more miles of coastline than at any other period of time in the State’s history.
Graves received his education at the University of Alabama, Louisiana Tech University, and American University.
The American Flood Coalition is an IRS Section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The American Flood Coalition is not a Congressional Membership Organization and nothing on this website shall be read to imply official sponsorship by either the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate or any of their respective Members. Federal Champion is an honorary title awarded by the American Flood Coalition to recognize Members of Congress who have come together to drive adaptation to the reality of higher seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding.
