Deep into a summer already marked by record-breaking summer temperatures across much of the United States and an unusually high number of deadly floods, from Texas to New Mexico and North Carolina to New Jersey, the nation’s most vulnerable groups face an unprecedented crisis. The federal agencies meant to predict, protect against and help rebuild after disasters are being gutted. The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget would cut funding for NOAA by almost half while shuttering the division that coordinates weather and climate research.
FEMA has already lost roughly one-third of its permanent staff, with the possibility that far more will leave the agency over the next two to four years. And although President Donald Trump seemingly stepped back from plans to abolish FEMA entirely, the agency’s future is unclear as it struggles to provide support in the wake of recent disasters. State and local agencies are hard pressed to fill the gap, with a recent report surveying over 1,600 state and local emergency management directors indicating they are “overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and underappreciated.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has canceled billions in disaster preparedness grants, initially denied federal assistance for recent disasters in Arkansas, West Virginia and Washington state, and rejected North Carolina’s requests for extending federal disaster support following Hurricane Helene in 2024. On top of that, the administration is simply not acting on a growing number of grants, while denying those that would help impacted communities better withstand future disasters. This could not come at a worse time for one of the most vulnerable groups facing everything from heat waves to wildfires and hurricanes — older Americans.
This demographic shift is colliding with a far-reaching crisis — climate change — that is putting our aging population at extreme risk. We need a cohesive national plan to safeguard older Americans uprooted by disaster.
We are in the midst of a demographic revolution, as the population of Americans aged 65 and older is growing rapidly, rising 34% between 2012-2022 and is projected to increase a further 47% by 2050. This demographic shift is colliding with a far-reaching crisis — climate change — that is putting our aging population at extreme risk. We need a cohesive national plan to safeguard older Americans uprooted by disaster.
Older people are among the most vulnerable to disasters, with their ability to respond hampered by debilitating chronic conditions, reduced mobility, social isolation and limited means. More than half of older Americans live in just nine states, areas that face a high risk of hurricanes, flooding, wildfires or extreme heat: California, Florida, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina. And their numbers are rising in increasingly disaster-prone areas, including the southwest and the Gulf Coast.
When disasters strike, they disproportionately impact older people. Their mortality rates are higher — comprising over half of the known deaths stemming from the recent Los Angeles fires, more than two-thirds of the fatalities from the 2023 Maui wildfire and three-quarters of those who died during Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years ago. As the New York Times reported in 2023, extreme heat can be deadly for anyone, but older adults are uniquely vulnerable. In the heat wave that suffocated Europe in the summer of 2022, people age 65 and older accounted for approximately 90% of heat-related deaths. The long-tail stress of disasters is also more consequential for the elderly. Take the toll on mental health: Studies suggest that older people are more likely to experience depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder following a disaster than younger adults.
The need for medical care may increase — studies found a rise in emergency department visits by older adults in the days and weeks after Hurricane Sandy — while hospitals might become inaccessible or inoperative. Almost 250 California hospitals lost power in 2019 in an intentional power outage, part of a wildfire prevention effort, while one study found that nearly three-quarters of hospital evacuations between 2000 and 2017 resulted from climate-related events. The L.A. fires highlight other challenges for older evacuees, including receiving medications and powering necessary medical devices, such as for those on oxygen, when displaced.
As climate-related disasters increase in coming years, paying for old age, already difficult, will become harder to do. Many older Americans risk exhausting their savings to cover the rising costs of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and in-home care. Absorbing the financial shock of losing one’s home — where many older Americans hold most of their wealth — to a wildfire or hurricane and being forced to rebuild or relocate on a fixed income will compound this crisis, especially as insurance costs spike across the country and insurers abandon high-risk areas in Florida, California and beyond.
Homeownership, however, is only part of the story. More than one in five older households are rentals, with older renters more likely to be people of color. A 2023 study found that the median net wealth of older renters was just 2% of that of older homeowners, reflecting greater financial vulnerability to short and long-term disaster impacts. Research suggests rents in areas affected by disaster initially increase 4-6% and remain elevated for years after. This could make staying in a particular home or neighborhood — which often means near the family and friends comprising a person’s support network — impossible for those living on a fixed income. Meanwhile, the affordable housing crisis is deepening and the population of older homeless people is rising — and is estimated to nearly triple by 2030 (from the 2017 rates) in L.A. and New York City alone.
Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dislocation of any kind brings cascading risks. Once evacuated, older people might be separated from the caregivers they rely on for support. Those dislocated are also vulnerable to abuse, including financial exploitation. Limited studies indicate that older people are subject to theft, contractor fraud, neglect and abandonment, as well as physical abuse, after disasters. All the difficulties that typically attach to reporting these harms — from fear of retaliation to depending on the abuser for support — could be exacerbated by dislocation. Meanwhile, ageism can create biases that limit older peoples’ participation in disaster planning, leading to programs insufficiently tailored to their needs.
Our system of disaster response and adaptation privileges costly recovery over preemptive risk reduction. This echoes our flawed approach to public health, where underfunding prevention contributes to predictable, costly and often deadly outcomes. Adaptation policies that encourage planned relocation long before a disaster — rather than emergency evacuations once a crisis hits — can play a role. Buyout programs for homes in high-risk areas could encourage homeowners to move to safer ground while they can, potentially saving lives in the process. Older people are less likely to relocate than their younger neighbors. As a starting point for reform, programs could incentivize relocating to places more suited to older peoples’ needs — whether through better public transport, more resilient healthcare infrastructure or more accessible, affordable and resilient housing.
Policies that focus on moving individuals rather than communities carry a risk, potentially disintegrating social networks that help sustain people later in life. Studies have shown that those who move with their broader community fare better than when communities are fractured, with older people experiencing lower rates of cognitive impairment. Relocation policies should prioritize keeping communities intact.
We need your help to stay independent
For those uprooted after disaster strikes, getting help means navigating a complex web of federal and state agencies. At the federal level alone, disaster recovery plays out across more than thirty agencies. Streamlining assistance should be coupled with expanding aid for older people — especially the most vulnerable among them. Pending broader reform, creating a service to help at-risk older individuals navigate the recovery ecosystem — finding existing benefits while encouraging proactive planning — could help older people prepare, respond to and recover from disaster.
Without a cohesive national plan, more older Americans will be uprooted by disaster and face poverty in coming years. No state or locality can meet this challenge alone and existing safety net programs are not enough. Expanding them for climate-vulnerable older people could take the form of increased emergency benefits administered through existing disaster recovery programs. But any reform must consider the long arc of disaster recovery, which can take months or years. For older Americans, this period not only promises the hardships — financial and otherwise — of rebuilding a life, but also the rising medical costs often needed to sustain it in old age.
Change is necessary, from how we handle the immediate wake of disasters to the broader adaptation, resilience and mitigation measures needed to minimize and safeguard against them. In reimagining what comes next, the needs of older people must be prioritized.
