Hello, Reader!
Natural disasters don't just test emergency systems.
They test our values, priorities, and sense of community.
As historic flooding devastates parts of Texas--killing more than 120 people and leaving entire neighborhoods submerged-- we pause not just to grieve, but to understand.
What happens when the unthinkable strikes?
Who helps? And how have Americans answered these questions before?
This week, we trace the evolution of U.S. disaster response from bucket brigades to FEMA. It's a history of improvisation, debate, and lessons learned.
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π§ A River Rose in Texas, and So Did the Questions
The scale of the Texas floods raises urgent, familiar questions:
- How do we prepare for disasters?
- Who should lead the response?
- And what can history teach us about who bears responsibility?
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πΌοΈ The Big Picture
What's Happening: Flash floods swept across Texas Hill Country over the Fourth of July weekend. More than 120 people have died, nearly 175 are missing, and entire communities, like those near Camp Mystic, have been devastated. Warnings were issued, but many say they came too late. [1]
β οΈ Why It Matters: Natural disasters test more than our infrastructure. They challenge our idea about who should step in: local leaders, states, or the federal government?
What History Reveals: The United States has no constitutional requirement for federal aid. Yet over time, Americans have pushed for broader federal involvment.
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π A Brief History of U.S. Disaster Response
No clear mandate: The United States Constitution doesn't mention disasters. In the early republic, Americans viewed public safety as a local and state responsibility, not a national one. [2]
Private aid, local response: When the yellow fever epidemic struck Philadelphia in 1793, or fires leveled cities like New York (1776) and Savannah (1796), volunteers, church groups, and local officials responded without national government involvement. [3]
First Federal Aid (1803): On Christmas Day 1802, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (still the state capital) experienced the first of three devastating fires between 1802 and 1813. The 1802 fire began when an old wooden building caught fire. The fire lept from building to building. Residents fought the blaze using water pump engines and a leather bucket brigade. Neighbors from nearby towns came to assist, but by the time they put out the fire, only the North Church and the old State House remained.
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Most property owners lacked insurance to cover rebuilding costs. As with earlier disasters, private charities stepped in with donations to help those impacted, but it still wasn't enough to cover the devastation. In January 1803, the United States Congress passed a bill "For the relief of the sufferers by Fire, in the town of Portsmouth." The bill read:
Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the secretary of the treasury be, and he hereby is authorized and directed to cause to be suspended for months, the collection of bonds due to the United States by merchants of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, who have suffered by the late conflagration of that town. [4]
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Ad hoc Assistance to Policy: Between 1803 and 1930, Congress offered one-time relief over 100 times. In 1950, the Federal Disaster Relief Act created the first structured federal response. [5]
FEMA: In 1979, President Jimmy Carter created the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to centralize the federal government's disaster response. Later reforms, especially the Stafford Act of 1988, clarified how states should request help and how the federal government delivers it. [6]
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π¬ Final Thought
This history of disaster relief in the United States reminds us that relief has never been automatic. Each flood, fire, and disease outbreak has pushed Americans to ask not just "how do we recover and rebuild?" but "Who is responsible for helping us recover and rebuild?" Texas is asking these questions again.
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π§ Go Deeper
Explore how early Americans faced catastrophe, built resilience, and redefined community in times of crisis:
π₯ The Great New York Fire of 1776β
βEpisode 395: Benjamin Carpβ
Learn how one of early America's largest urban fires shaped Revolutionary New York.
π¦ Yellow Fever in the Early Republicβ
βEpisode 174: Thomas Apelβ
Discover how yellow fever outbreaks tested science, society, and solidarity in early Philadelphia.
𧬠Immunity and Inequality in Early New Orleansβ
βEpisode 316: Kathryn Olivariusβ
Explore how immunity to yellow fever became a form of social and economic capital and what that meant for marginalized people in early New Orleans.
π Wampanoag Resilience and Adaptationβ
βEpisode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1β
Investigate Indigenous responses to environmental and colonial disruptions.
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π£οΈ What Do You Think?
Disaster response isn't just about logistics, it's about values.
From Portsmouth in 1803 to Texas in 2025, relief efforts have evolved, but the questions remain:
Should the federal government play a larger or smaller role in disaster preparedness? Do early precedents still shape how we think about aid? What lessons will the Texas floods leave behind?
π© Hit Reply to share your thoughts.β
π¬ Join the conversation in our Listener Community.
Have a great weekend,
βLiz Covartβ
Host, Ben Franklinβs Worldβ
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P.S.
Tim and I are settling into Boston. Thank you for your patience while we moved.
BIG announcements are coming soon:
Watch your inbox Monday--and listen Tuesday for Episode 416: Lineage: Genealogy in Early America.
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π End Notes
[1] Aria Bendix, "Death toll rises to 120 in Texas, including Camp Mystic children, after flash floods," NBC News, July 9, 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/texas-floods-live-updates-160-missing-rescuers-continue-desperate-sear-rcna217685, accessed July 10, 2025; Danny Hakim, Emily Cochrane, and Nicolas Bogel-Burroughs, "As Texas Flood Raged, Camp Mystic Was Left to Fend for Itself," The New York Times, July 10, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/texas-flood-local-response.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU8.h4rE.bjJRMEoZ_x2J&smid=url-share, accessed July 10, 2025; Today, "Texas Flood Death Toll Rises Amid Weather Warning Scrutiny," Morgan Chesky, Today: NBC News, July 10, 2025, https://www.today.com/video/texas-flood-death-toll-rises-amid-weather-warning-scrutiny-242988613653, accessed July 10, 2025.
[2] United States, "Full Text of the United States Constitution," National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text, accessed July 10, 2025.
[3] Benjamin L. Carp, The Great New York Fire of 1776, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2024); Buddy Sullivan, "Savannah," New Georgia Encyclopedia, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/savannah/, accessed July 10, 2025; "Savannah's Great Fire of 1796," GoSouth! Savannah, https://gosouthsavannah.com/history/fire-of-1796.html, accessed July 10, 2025; "History of Savannah," Visit Savannah, https://visitsavannah.com/article/history-savannah, accessed July 10, 2025.
[4] United States Congress, "A Bill, For the relief of the suffers by fire, in the town of Portsmouth," January 14, 1803, congress.gov, https://www.congress.gov/bill/7th-congress/house-bill/11/1803/01/14/text, accessed July 10, 2025; New England Historical Society, "The Portsmouth Fires that Turned the City to Brick," https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-portsmouth-fires-that-turned-the-city-to-brick/, accessed July 10, 2025.
[5] Tennessee Department of Military, "History 1950s," https://www.tn.gov/tema/the-agency/agency-history/history-1950s.html#:~:text=On%20September%2030%2C%201950%2C%20Congress,states%20during%20times%20of%20disaster., accessed July 10, 2025; Harry S. Truman, "Executive Order 10427--Administration of Disaster Relief," University of California-Santa Barbara, The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-10427-administration-disaster-relief, accessed July 10, 2025; Weld County Colorado, "History of U.S. Emergency Management," https://www.weld.gov/Government/Departments/Office-of-Emergency-Management/History-of-U.S.-Emergency-Management, accesesd July 10, 2025.
[6] United States Congress, "Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act,β" November 23, 1988, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-2977/pdf/COMPS-2977.pdf, accessed July 10, 2025.
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π Further Reading
Benjamin L. Carp, The Great New York Fire of 1776, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2024).
Stephen Coss, The Fever of 1721: The Episdemic that Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016).
Eric Jay Dolin, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred Year History of America's Hurricanes, (New York: Liveright, 2020).
William K. Klingaman & Nicholas P. Klingaman, The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2013).
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