Where housing needs are huge after Helene's wrath, tiny cabins offer shelter in NC

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, necessity has bred an interesting kind of financial invention for the New York MTA: the world’s first “catastrophe” bond - a reinsurance for the insurer - designed to protect public transportation infrastructure, specifically against storm surge. These bonds privatize risk for public gain, creating a kind of tool that may protect economic development against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters around the world.

Shredded coconut husk, known as Coir, is becoming a popular material for shoreline restoration projects. It’s typically used to trap sediment while protecting vegetation and wildlife from the force of waves. Once the vegetation has several years to flourish, the natural coconut fibers will have decomposed.

Refugio, Texas was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, leaving behind damaged houses, schools and businesses and people who can not afford to rebuild their lives. However, this town has used its community and found strength in their love of football and their support of one another to keep moving forward.

Boston and other flood-vulnerable areas are having to build for the future to prevent water damage from hurricanes and other natural disasters, especially as climate change makes storms stronger and bigger. Boston is researching the feasibility of a seawall as well as building other barriers at critical points, attention is being paid to preventive efforts in order to minimize future damages.

FEMA’s response to Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Irma has been the “longest sustained domestic airborne food and water mission in the nation’s history. The agency has never distributed more food or installed more generators.” However, due to bureaucracy and delayed decision making, there are still thousands of Puerto Ricans who have not received aid, or were underserved.

To better position services during and after natural disasters, many nonprofits are turning towards mapping technology. Specifically, Facebook’s Disaster Maps share usage data to indicate movement, such as where people evacuated before Hurricane Florence. Humanity Road is another map source that includes data on infrastructure. Putting this information together, nonprofits such as Direct Relief can more accurately target their emergency response services.

A modest fleet of floating schools in Bangladesh ensures children can continue getting the education they need even if their village is cut off during the rainy season. The boats pick the kids up and they have lessons on the floating schoolhouse before being returned to their villages. There are now 23 such schools in the country and the model has grown to include floating medical clinics and a combination library and playground.

In countries like Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique, rats are saving lives by detecting untriggered land mines. An international nonprofit, Apopo, provides funding a training and works with local organizations to operate at the local level. The rats are light enough that they don’t trigger the explosives and can cover up to 2,000 square feet in just 20 minutes – something that would take a human up to four days to complete.

The nonprofit group Save Giraffes Now, the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Northern Rangelands Trust, and local community members are working together to save the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe species. Rising lake levels and flooding have stranded the animals on its island, so they made a custom-built steel barge to relocate them to a protected wildlife reserve. It’s not easy to move giraffes, but so far they’ve successfully moved three out of nine of them.

In 1970 Cyclone Bhola hit Bangladesh. It killed up to 500,000 people. Since then, the country has revamped its emergency disaster preparedness through a multipronged process, reducing its cyclone-related deaths by 100 fold. Now, the country collects weather data from more than 50 weather stations. The data is sent to mitigation committees which dispense the info to people through various methods: radio, text messages, and even doorknocking. The country also has a volunteer program with 76,000 volunteers and increased the number of multi-purpose shelters from 44 in 1970 to 512 in 1991.