Tom covers the federal response to climate change, focusing on FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and other disaster-response agencies. He worked previously at USA Today, BuzzFeed News, Newsday and several local newspapers. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2012 and has won other national journalism awards including from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the National Press Club and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
A federal program has saved taxpayers billions of dollars in disaster relief payments by keeping environmentally sensitive coastal areas clear of buildings, roads and infrastructure, a new study says.
The private sector is returning to the risky world of insuring homes against flood damage, offering hope that the paltry percentage of homeowners with flood insurance will rise out of the single digits.
Efforts in Congress to overhaul an embattled insurance program that covers millions of properties against flood damage were jolted yesterday by a plan to make taxpayers pay $20 billion in cost overruns.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent $1.5 billion managing small-scale disasters, a top agency official testified yesterday, diverting resources and personnel from catastrophic events.
President Trump's vow of first-rate treatment to tornado-stricken Alabamians sparked accusations of favoritism toward a state that strongly supported him in the 2016 election. But the numbers show that he's evenhanded when declaring disasters.