Typically, people don’t tend to think of Alabama as a state that can be a model for others. But recent work from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows how it is becoming a “Model in Disaster Resilience.”

As a November 10 article by Pew Senior Officer Mathew Sanders, explains,   “state leaders have built a coordinated forward-looking approach to disasters – one grounded in data, community needs and experience.”

The work began in 2011 when the state passed the Strengthen Alabama Homes Act, which laid groundwork “for a first-in-the-nation grant program to help homeowners retrofit their properties against wind-related disasters in exchange for insurance premium discounts.

Since then, the Strengthen Alabama Homes (SAH) program has become a national model, replicated in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Further, Alabama experts are routinely called upon to share their insights into best practices at both the state and federal levels.”

Now, the state has taken a giant step forward in order to create a unified strategy for dealing with natural disasters across agencies, sectors and regions. Over the course of 2022, “Pew worked closely with Governor Kay Ivey’s administration to explore how Alabama could build on existing strengths – like SAH – and begin planning more holistically for long-term risk.”

In May 2023, the state established its Alabama Resilience Council “to coordinate resilience-related activities across state government and facilitate collaboration with the private sector. The executive order positioned resilience not just as a policy ambition, but as a practical and operational priority.”

Pew has contributed research, policy guidance and support across the working groups to help create actionable recommendations, which led to Governor Ivey’s delivering a report outlining future plans. As Sanders writes,  “The report recommended that the state develop a comprehensive plan, conduct a full inventory of assets, enhance cross-agency coordination, and put in place a chief resilience officer (CRO) to lead implementation.” 

In April 2025, a pair of bills helped consecrate these improvements into law. The House bill got a favorable markup report from the State Government Committee. However, those two bills died when the 2025 session adjourned last spring. Their sponsors are planning to reintroduce both (with some light revisions) as either pre-filed bills or bills filed very early in the 2026 season, with the idea that they’ll get an honest chance to pass in 2026. So, as of now, they’re technically dead, but assuming everything stays on its current track, they’ll soon be revived.

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