Trump administration cuts turned rural towns into sitting ducks for disasters

Source: NPR

March 30, 2026 5:08 AM ET


The town of Duryea, Pa., is on the banks of the Lackawanna River. Residents can see the low, placid water from their churches, schools and houses. But, when there's a lot of rain, the river rises, and can cause catastrophic flooding. Since the 1970s, a tall earthen levee has protected Duryea from floodwaters. But the river gets higher than it used to. Changes in the river due to development combined with the effects of climate change, which makes heavy rain more common, means that Duryea faces more water now than in the past. "We are seeing increased storms and increased water volumes," says Laura Holbrook, the director of the flood protection authority for Luzerne County, Pa, where the town is located.

The levee in Duryea needs to be raised by about 3 feet in order to adequately protect the town, she explains. The clock is ticking to get the upgrades done, because a disaster could happen at any time. , Massive floods rocked the county in 2011 and 2014. Multiple major floods have caused millions of dollars of damage in the area around Duryea in just the last three years, and the risk is only growing. The heaviest rainstorms in the Northeast drop 60% more rain today than they did in the mid-20th century, according to the National Climate Assessment.

"It definitely keeps me up at night," Holbrook says. However, getting the Duryea levee fixed has been impossible so far. Local authorities sank hundreds of thousands of dollars into designs for the levee upgrades, in the hopes of quickly applying for $11 million in federal funds to complete the repairs. But there's been no way to access federal grants for such projects over the last year because the Trump administration has withheld billions of dollars for disaster preparedness and prevention that local governments – especially those in rural areas – rely on.

Earlier this month week, in response to a lawsuit by 20 states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) agreed to restart the largest federal grant program for disaster preparedness. Competition for those funds will likely be intense, because two years worth of applicants will be vying for one year's worth of money, according to public filings released last week by FEMA. The administration will prioritize funding "major infrastructure projects" according to a FEMA press release.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/30/nx-s1-5753765/fema-trump-extreme-weather-rural-pennsylvania