Preparing and Rebuilding After Natural Disasters: A New Public Health Normal

Lichtveld concludes that "one potentially daring but promising strategy is to elevate community resilience [our emphasis] as an essential public health service," (p. 30) followed by performance benchmarks for federal, state, and local health agencies. [...]even if the exact responsibility cannot be established for each disaster separately, the potential repercussions of climate change on the risk profile of hurricanes and floods and their potential impacts cannot be ignored, and need to be factored in when reconstructing resilient communities. By 2014, the number of jurisdictions reporting established capability functions within the countermeasures and mitigation domain had increased from less than three percent in 2001 to more than 97% in 2016.2 Between 2007 and 2014, the minimum overall scores for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Technical Assistance Review among the 50 states increased from 51 to 89, and the mean from 86.6 to 98, on a scale of zero to 100.3 These efforts, unfortunately jeopardized by funding reductions and capacity loss of many public health agencies noticeable since 2004,3 are essential, and must be sustained and strengthened.