District Dialogues: Building Resilient Communities and Preparing for Extreme Weather Challenges

The third District Dialogues event of the 2022-2023 season explored how communities and industries across the Fifth District are preparing to navigate the impact of extreme weather on local economies, while also covering some familiar and some lesser-known ways that extreme weather is affecting the economy and local communities. Richmond Fed senior economist Toan Phan kicked off the discussion with an overview of how economists have viewed the potential effects of extreme weather on the economy and financial system. Panelists for the event were Erica Anderson with Land of Sky Regional Council, an organization representing four counties in western North Carolina; Jeremy Hoffman with the Science Museum of Virginia; and Jessica Whitehead with Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience. They discussed what extreme weather has looked like in rural, coastal and urban areas and the effects on the local economies and industry.