More than 300 representatives from community-based organizations, public health, emergency management, academia, utilities, philanthropy, insurance and finance shared their communities’ experiences with severe weather disasters in a new report from The Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University. The report identifies avenues for preparing, protecting and supporting communities that have been most affected by increasingly common severe weather.
“Across the United States, communities are experiencing storms, heatwaves, floods, and wildfires at a frequency and intensity once unimaginable,” said Mathy V. Stanislaus, Esq, Drexel vice provost and director of The Environmental Collaboratory. “At the same time, aging infrastructure, overburdened health systems, and emergency frameworks designed for a bygone era are failing to keep pace with today’s climate realities.”
Entitled “Community-Level Preparedness and Recovery for Increasingly Severe Weather” the report shares stories of tragedy and recovery from recent weather-related crises, including flooding that took 25 lives at a summer camp in Texas, Hurricane Helene’s historic rainfall and catastrophic flooding, and the heat wave and drought that took more than 100 lives and billions in crops in 2024.
It offers direct insights from stakeholders, including residents from climate vulnerable communities, about the realities of building resilience. Like this one from Brenda Whitfield, a block captain in the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia — the city’s most flood-prone community:
Every time the floods would go over the banks me and my grandchildren would run to tell the neighbors...we had to beg for that warning system — we need to build immediate solutions to prepare and protect communities.
The report is unique in that its foundation is formed by these first-person accounts from people whose communities have suffered from severe weather disasters with a focus on how collective action can result in saving lives, homes, livelihoods and money. More than 80 representatives of these communities gathered at Drexel earlier this year to share their stories and discuss how communities can work together with government agencies, advocates and the private sector to build resiliency.
These stories, the information gleaned through interviews and surveys of stakeholders across the country, combined with a broad analysis of weather event data through the lens of emergency management and recovery, enabled the group to lay out clear recommendations for improving extreme-weather preparedness.
It’s primary guidance: listen to communities, work together and act with urgency.
Acting with Urgency
“The extreme weather crisis is no longer a distant threat — it is the defining challenge of our time,” Stanislaus said. This is a multidimensional crisis that demands a multidimensional response,” “We must move from fragmented, reactive systems toward coordinated, just, and resilient preparedness. Cultivating resilience requires shared responsibility, aligned investment, and the humility to center the voices closest to the risk.” “As always, it is frontline communities — our elders, children, workers and families already burdened by inequity — who are hit first and hardest.”
The report identified the following community needs as priorities:
- Accessible, multilingual early-warning systems and culturally relevant emergency communication.
- Localized, real-time data that integrate community-collected information into public dashboards.
- Equitable resourcing of grassroots organizations, which are often the first to respond during disasters.
- Centering vulnerable populations through compensated community participation, updated access and functional-needs data, and inclusive planning processes.
“The core message of the report is clear: effective extreme-weather preparedness must be inclusive, coordinated, and responsive to real community conditions,” said Mira Olson, PhD, an associate professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, who oversaw research and stakeholder consultation for the report. “Recent severe weather disasters demonstrate that even well-resourced regions are vulnerable: warning systems fail, emergency alerts go unsent, and development continues in areas known to be high-risk. Rising temperatures are pushing hospitals and first responders beyond capacity, increasing rates of heat-related illness, chronic health complications and preventable deaths.”
A Collaborative Solution
The participants also pointed out the need for coordinated evacuation strategies, robust heat-response measures, such as right-to-cooling policies and more consistent intergovernmental communication during emergencies.
Representatives from government agencies, regional economic development and public health organizations, and legal, finance and real estate industries also highlighted the need to improve the systems that enable recovery — ranging from utilities and public health to finance, real estate and insurance. They also called out the need for better monitoring of industrial facilities with the potential to malfunction and spread contamination in the wake of weather disasters.
“Preparing for increasingly severe weather is a shared responsibility. By collaborating across the public and private sectors, we can build a region that is stronger, safer, and better equipped to face the challenges ahead,” said Ariella Maron, executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, one of the stakeholders who contributed to the report. “This report highlights the growing urgency of these issues and outlines actions we can take to support more resilient communities, including strengthening emergency communication, supporting local governments, improving access to essential services and incorporating community voices into disaster preparedness and recovery planning.”
The report outlines practical, achievable steps that governments, institutions, private-sector leaders, community organizations, and residents can take now to reduce loss of life and livelihood, strengthen preparedness and build long-term community resilience. These include:
- Launching public education and communications campaigns
- Creating policy and best practice resource guides
- Collecting data and coordinating research
- Sharing knowledge through accessible platforms
- Convening stakeholders to facilitate knowledge building
“State environmental agency leaders support the need for locally driven actions and partnerships to increase emergency preparedness, disaster response, community resilience and public health,” said Ben Grumbles, executive director of The Environmental Council of the States, one of the representatives who participated in the process of creating the report. “This timely report underscores the urgency and identifies a wide range of pathways and partnerships for a better, healthier future in the face of extreme weather and climate-related impacts.”
Moving Forward
The Environmental Collaboratory will continue this awareness and guidance effort by convening annual meetings of the group to discuss coalition building and a path toward the actions laid out in the report. The next will be held on Jan. 28, 2026. “As a collective, we have the ability to shift our mindsets from fear to power by educating and preparing communities regarding climate change. We cannot fearfully cover our heads and simply wish for the storms and floods to end,” said Gweny Love, executive director & CEO of Mantua Worldwide Community, Inc., who participated in the creation of the report.
“As citizens of this great Earth, it is our responsibility to nurture and protect our environment. We must roll up our sleeves and put our hands to the plow to ensure that we establish sustainable and resilient communities to ensure a bright, promising future for generations to come.”
Everyone at the Table
In all, more than five dozen organizations were represented in the process of creating the report. They include community groups, such as Mantua Civic Association, Mantua Worldwide Community, Inc., Eastwick United and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition (SEAMAAC).
Advocacy organizations, including C-Change Conversations, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, Green Buildings United, World Wildlife Fund, Coming Clean, Delaware First Resilience Huband the Union of Concerned Scientists were also represented.
Government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Delaware Emergency Management, New Castle Office of Emergency Management, Philadelphia Department of Health and Office of Emergency Management and the Veterans Health Administration, participated as well.
Economic development organizations, including the World Economic Forum, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Lehigh County Authority, New York Community Trust, Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, were part of the process.
Health care academic institutions, including Christiana Care Health System, Nemours Children’s Health, Penn Medicine, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University and Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania joined the conversation.
And the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware and their city councils were also represented.
“We are glad to see this report by The Environmental Collaboratory provide decision-makers with recommendations about how to ensure these communities receive their fair share of public resources for critical emergency preparedness and disaster recovery as climate change impacts worsen,” said Chitra Kumar, managing director of Climate & Energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The report was made possible by support from the Waverly Foundation. In addition to Stanislaus and Olson, Maya Hillis, a graduate researcher in Drexel’s College of Engineering was instrumental in leading the research, data and stakeholder synthesis. Sammy Shuster, program manager in The Environmental Collaboratory; Diana S. Nicholas, an associate professor in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design; and Hugh Johnson, senior director of Research Strategy and Development in The Collaboratory, also contributed to the report.
Read the full report here: https://drexel.edu/environmental-collaboratory/emergency-preparedness