Biden doubles FEMA pre-disaster funding to $1 billion to prepare states for extreme weather
24 May 2021
The Biden administration plans to invest $1 billion helping states prepare for extreme weather ahead of the 2021 hurricane season, alongside an initiative to track natural disasters through a new NASA program.
Why it matters: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expects above-average storm activity during the next hurricane season, which would make this the sixth unusually active season in a row.
- The administration's $1 billion pledge doubles the amount of money the government had previously spent helping communities brace for extreme weather through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
- Floods, hurricanes, and wildfires are key areas of focus for preparing localities for disaster, the White House said. The administration plans to use NASA's Earth System Observatory to forecast and monitor natural disasters.
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: By increasing sea levels, climate change is making hurricanes more destructive and costly. There is also evidence showing that warming sea and air temperatures are causing nature's most powerful storms to become even stronger.
- More storm resilience funding, in addition to launching the NASA program, demonstrates the Biden administration's continued focus on the impacts of extreme weather events on the economy.
What to watch: The first named storm of the season, Subtropical Storm Ana, formed and dissipated over the weekend in the North Atlantic.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.