Proposed legislation would strengthen FEMA’s response to gender-based violence, an issue advocates say is often overlooked after natural disasters.

This story was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of The 19th, and republished through Rewire News Group‘s partnership with the 19th News Network.

After a deadly wildfire tore through Maui in August 2023, community organizer Khara Jabola-Carolus set out to ask women how they were faring after the disaster. She teamed up with fellow community organizer Nadine Ortega to co-found Tagnawa, a grassroots recovery organization to meet the needs of Filipinos and other marginalized groups on the island.

There are plenty of statistics and anecdotes documenting the abuse and violence women have had to endure following natural disasters. Still, what Jabola-Carolus learned was startling: Of the 70 Filipino women Tagnawa surveyed, one in six said they felt forced to engage in “survival sex,” which involves the exchange of sexual acts for food, housing, and other basic necessities. 

Mental health experts also shared stories of child sexual abuse going unreported to keep a family unit together amid the uncertainty and instability caused by the fires. At Women Helping Women, a local domestic violence organization, the number of calls doubled to 550 per month in the first two months after the disaster. 

“We tried to gather as much as we could in that short window of time in order to generate action,” said Jabola-Carolus, a former executive director of the Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women whose family is from the Philippines, where hurricanes and typhoons have been linked to increased violence against women.

Three years later, Reps. Laurel Lee, a Florida Republican, and Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat, have introduced legislation directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to strengthen safety at evacuation shelters and establish reporting protocols for issues like domestic violence and sexual assault. 

The bill also requires training for FEMA personnel in how to identify and support........

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