Hello and welcome to State of Emergency, an exclusive newsletter about how disasters are changing politics. I’m Jake Bittle, a reporter for Grist, and I co-author this newsletter with my colleague Zoya Tierstein.
It’s almost a truism that disasters present opportunities for positive change. It’s the idea behind President Joe Biden’s promise to “build back better” after the COVID-19 pandemic, and why FEMA has pumped billions of dollars into post-disaster adaptation projects. But in my five years covering climate disasters, I’ve rarely seen a place turn around after a major flood or wildfire. Displaced victims are scattered into hotels and rental apartments, developers and local lawmakers rush to rebuild everything just as it was, and no one becomes safer or more resilient even as the underlying risks increase.
The fast-spreading Marshall Wildfire is ravaging Louisville, Colorado, burning homes on December 30, 2021.
Mark Piscotty/Getty Images
The suburb of Boulder, Colorado, where more than 1,000 homes were lost in the devastating Marshall Wildfire in 2021, is an exception to this rule. After the fire, a young city councilman named Kyle Brown jumped at the chance to fill a vacant seat in the state Legislature on a platform of accelerating the stalled recovery. Since taking office, Brown has worked with survivors to draft and pass a series of landmark bills to protect fire survivors and mitigate the damage from future wildfires. In just one term, Brown has helped make Colorado a national leader in fire resilience.
As I reported this week, to pass these bills, Governor Brown had to take on many powerful institutions in the state Capitol: insurance companies, banks, mortgage servicers, landlords, and even homeowners associations. Governor Brown may never have succeeded without the tireless support of a group called Marshall Together, which brought hundreds of fire victims from nearby towns together on the workplace messaging app Slack. The group’s founder, attorney Tawnya Soumarou, envisioned it as a political lobbying effort rather than a charity or neighborhood association. She studied housing and insurance laws, collected stories from neighbors who had been forced to evacuate, and lobbied lawmakers, as did trade associations and the Farm Bureau. When fire survivors flexed their political muscle, the trade associations backed off, and Governor Brown’s bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Extreme weather events not only destroy homes and buildings, they also change how people relate to each other and to their governments.
These areas outside Boulder are more densely populated and wealthier than many wildfire-prone areas, so residents like Soumarou likely had the time and resources to organize after the disaster. But many of the biggest reforms they passed are prospective, not retroactive, so Marshall Fire survivors won’t get to benefit from them. But future wildfire victims in Colorado will have strong protections from predatory mortgage lenders and insurance companies, which could mean the difference between rebuilding in one year or five.
This is a powerful example that we will highlight in this newsletter. Extreme weather doesn’t just destroy homes and buildings; it also changes how people relate to each other and to their government. In Boulder, unlike many other places, that change has been for the better.
Focus on the fire
Kyle Brown was the lead sponsor of 26 bills during his first term as a Colorado state representative, half of which were about recovery from the Marshall Fire or future fire resilience. These bills challenged established industries like insurance and banking, but most passed with bipartisan support. Brown had success with fire bills, as well as other bills on more mundane topics like bingo permits and virtual weddings.
Read the full story on the flurry of legislative activity that followed the Marshall Fires.
What we’re reading
Should Biden do more to combat heat waves? Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat running for Senate in Arizona, slammed the Biden administration for not doing more to address the heat threat.
read more
Oregon wildfires become election issue: As wildfires in Oregon burn thousands of acres, Democratic candidates in districts around Bend are attacking incumbent Rep. Lori Chavez Deremer for voting against billions of dollars in wildfire prevention funding.read more
Hurricane Deja Vu in Florida: Hurricane Debbie inundated northwest Florida last week, hitting the same areas as Hurricane Idalia last year, including Tampa, where early voting for the Florida primary had begun.read more
Tennessee Hot Weather Voting: Election officials in Shelby County, which includes the city of Memphis, said hot weather was reducing voter turnout in state and local primaries in the area.read more
Tim Walz, Vice President for Climate Change: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz comes from a state that isn’t affected by many major weather disasters like hurricanes or wildfires, but as my Emergency co-authors report, Kamala Harris’ running mate has an impressive track record of passing major environmental legislation in the state.read more
