It all started when journalist Jake Bittle visited Houston to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. He was sent to report on a FEMA program designed to move people away from flood-prone areas. In conjunction with other stories involving displacement due to wildfires, Bittle began to realize he had a book idea slowly forming.
“I spent the last few years traveling around the United States speaking to people who’ve had to leave their homes, or who’ve been sort of forced out of their communities by various climate disasters from hurricanes to wildfires,” Bittle said. “And the book, which comes out in February, sort of compiles a few places around the country where those movements are most acute or where they’ve progressed the farthest thus far.”
Bittle said he’s discovered some recurring themes among people who’ve experienced such disasters. For people whose homes were destroyed, he said most don’t move very far away, potentially setting themselves up for more harm. “A lot of incentives in the way that the federal government handles disaster recovery for people to build back basically exactly where they were,” he said.
“Most insurance payouts, for instance like in Florida if your house gets destroyed, you basically have to build back where it was if you want to receive the insurance money.” After the Paradise fire in California in 2018, Bittle said many residents moved to nearby Chico, exacerbating a housing shortage there. Looking long-term, he said the upper Midwest is largely regarded as the area of the country most resilient to climate change. Bittle specifically pointed out Minnesota, Michigan, and Cincinnati, Ohio as potential climate havens.