Via FAS [many thanks as always to Steven Aftergood] – a complement of new and recent applicable critical CRS resources on subject matter pertinent to Hurricane Harvey, including flood response and recovery, oils and chemical spills, flood insurance, disaster assistance and housing, and dam safety. These documents are especially important in light of this report – AccuWeather predicts Hurricane Harvey to be more costly than Katrina, Sandy combined and this one from BloombergBusinessWeek – “…The impact on taxpayers is more serious, because Harvey is likely to generate tens of billions of dollars in emergency federal aid and claims on the money-losing National Flood Insurance Program…Above all, Harvey is a humanitarian disaster.”

Other new or newly-relevant publications from the Congressional Research Service on disaster response include the following.

• Hurricane Harvey and Army Corps: Background for Flood Response and Recovery, CRS Insight, August 29, 2017
• Oil and Chemical Spills: Federal Emergency Response Framework, August 29, 2017
• Introduction to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), July 25, 2017 Federal Disaster Assistance Response and Recovery Programs: Brief Summaries, July 18, 2017
• Private Flood Insurance in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), CRS Insight, June 2, 2017
• Federal Disaster Assistance: The National Flood Insurance Program and Other Federal Disaster Assistance Programs Available to Individuals and Households After a Flood, April 6, 2017
• Major Disaster Assistance from the Disaster Relief Fund: State Profiles, March 29, 2017
• Dam Safety: Federal Programs and Authorities, CRS In Focus, February 23, 2017
• FEMA Disaster Housing: The Individuals and Households Program–Implementation and Potential Issues for Congress, September 2, 2016
• Congressional Primer on Responding to Major Disasters and Emergencies, May 19, 2015
• Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress, May 13, 2015
• FEMA’s Disaster Declaration Process: A Primer, November 12, 2014
• FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund: Overview and Selected Issues, May 7, 2014
• FEMA Disaster Cost-Shares: Evolution and Analysis, April 4, 2013
• FY2013 Supplemental Funding for Disaster Relief, February 19, 2013
• Federal Involvement in Flood Response and Flood Infrastructure Repair: Storm Sandy Recovery, October 31, 2012