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Report: When climate disasters hit, feds increasingly leave local governments hanging
- States Newsroom
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Isiah Holmes
Stateline
Communities that ask for federal assistance when climate disasters hit can’t count on that help to arrive. That increasingly common reality was reviewed in a recent report by Wisconsin Policy Forum, which focused on the historic floods in the state last August, finding that federal aid to help rebuild public infrastructure damaged by the record-breaking storms fell short of what was needed.
The report took a close look at the Milwaukee area, where 14.6 inches of rain set Wisconsin’s all-time record for the largest rainfall in a 24-hour period. “As a result, the Menomonee, Milwaukee, and Kinnickinnic rivers all overflowed, and rainwater flooded homes, streets, businesses, and schools in low-lying areas. Recovery efforts continue today and have been expanded to address the impacts of another massive storm that hit the area in April 2026.” Those storms earlier this year also dropped record-breaking amounts of rain in Green Bay and Wausau, and caused historic flooding along the Wolf River basin in Shiocton, New London, and Porterfield.
Researchers have long warned that increased risks of flooding and more severe storms would increase in Wisconsin due to climate change, which the administration of President Donald Trump has downplayed and dismissed as a hoax.
Not only did the August storms fill up basements and damage homes, but there was also extensive damage to roads, parks, bridges and other public infrastructure. In and around Milwaukee, damage to public property owned by the county property, public schools, the city of Milwaukee and 18 other localities came to at least $34.7 million. That included $10 million each for Milwaukee’s public school and sewage district, as well as $1.4 million in damage calculated by county officials, half of which was road-related damage. City officials estimated $1.7 million in damage, plus $5 million in additional costs related to cleaning up debris. Wauwatosa, one of Milwaukee County’s surrounding suburban communities, estimated $6.8 million in damage to city parks, roads and buildings.
All in all, about $240 million in damage to private and public property was left behind by the August storms in the Milwaukee-area. After deploying the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Trump administration approved $210 million in aid to help individuals rebuild, but would not provide funding to support local governments, despite multiple requests from state and local leaders.
Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers immediately declared a state of emergency after the August storms, requesting a federal major disaster declaration for Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Door, Grant, and Ozaukee counties. Evers made the request both for individual and public assistance, the Wisconsin Policy Forum report notes. Over 26,000 individual damage reports were received throughout the state as the damage was being assessed. FEMA concluded that the 2025 flooding was “sufficient in severity to warrant a disaster declaration in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Ozaukee counties but only authorized assistance to individuals and said that aid to public entities was not warranted based on the severity of the disaster,” the report states. “This meant that only individuals in these counties would be eligible for assistance and that governments have not received aid.”
It is rare for the federal government to approve one form of disaster aid while denying another, according to the report, with only 2.7% of named disasters since the year 2000 resulting in individual assistance being approved but public assistance being denied. In 2008, when severe storms and flooding hit the Milwaukee area, the federal government approved $4.5 million in assistance to local governments, as well as another $10.3 million when severe storms hit in 2010. “Milwaukee County has also received $6.1 million to help with costs associated with snowstorm cleanup since 2000,” the Wisconsin Policy Forum noted.
Earlier this month, $22.6 million in assistance was provided to several counties. President Trump used the allocation to promote Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany as a candidate for governor of Wisconsin.
Local governments have tried to pick up the slack, but at a high cost. Normally the state distributes $1 million to $3 million to local governments to cover disaster costs, but in 2025 the damage was so extensive that $16.9 million was needed to cover damage claims, the highest annual amount in records going back to the year 2000. “This was due both to the extent of the flooding in August 2025 and the denial of federal funding that potentially could have covered at least some of these costs,” the report states. Nearly 46,000 residents in Waukesha, Washington and Milwaukee counties applied for the individual assistance following the August storms, and as of June aid has been distributed to 36,800 of eligible applicants.
Protecting against the effects of climate change
Some local governments including Milwaukee County have undertaken policies to help adapt to the effects of climate change. “The sewage district has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into flood control systems in the area, including concrete infrastructure like the Deep Tunnel system as well as green infrastructure efforts such as wetland preservation, the reduction of hard surfaces such as concrete that create runoff, and other methods to limit the speed and volume of flood waters,” the Wisconsin Policy Forum reports. Without those measures, the August floods could have been “much worse,” according to the Policy Forum. “However, it’s clear from the two storms in the last 10 months that there are still thousands of structures in the area that are vulnerable to flooding.”
Recovering from disasters causes hardship. And more frequent severe weather is likely to bring on more disasters, even as, the Policy Forum found, “the availability of federal disaster relief has become more difficult to predict.” When the federal government decides to reject local communities’ calls for help, “state residents have limited recourse beyond petitioning FEMA and Congress to provide assistance.”
The report recommends that state leaders authorize additional funding to pay for disaster relief using state tax revenue. Attempts to do this by Evers and other lawmakers have previously been rejected by the Republican-controlled Legislature. State and local leaders could also make investments in flood control and mitigation efforts and expand green infrastructure. Developing community-based insurance policies to address “these unpredictable and increasingly likely disasters” is another solution the Policy Forum suggests.
“State and local leaders have limited control over when and where floods strike, but they can be prepared to respond when they occur,” the report concludes. “They can also reduce flood risk by investing in infrastructure that slows, stores, and redirects water.” Even these efforts may still be overwhelmed by the scale of disasters. And with the federal government demonstrating that, for whatever reason, aid isn’t guaranteed to come, Wisconsin may need to become “more self-sufficient” in responding to future disasters.
• This story was originally produced by Wisconsin Examiner, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Stateline, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
