FEMA announced the first designation of Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZs) on Sep. 26, 2023. CDRZs are census tracts that the agency identified are the most at risk to disasters, as required under the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022. The selected 483 census tracts receive additional federal cost-share for projects, and prioritized access to federal funding for resilience and mitigation projects.
On Dec. 11, 2024, FEMA announced a second round of CDRZ designations, including 275 census tracts in territories and on Tribal Nation lands.
Prior to designating the CDRZs, FEMA requested public comment on implementing the Act, including which data and methodology to rely on. FEMA also relied on the National Risk Index to identify the most at-risk underserved communities for the resilience zones.