The City of Seattle has officially been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to install air-conditioning in five library branches, aimed at adapting to increasingly extreme weather patterns. The announcement was made recently, as the city anticipates yet another series of hazardous climate events.
According to the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE), the grant will allow the city to quickly and effectively establish more resilient infrastructure to protect residents against the intensifying spells of heat and smoke - phenomena that disproportionally impact communities of color. Seattle is on a mission to not only "aggressively reduce emissions" but to also ensure that it has the means to "preparing residents for what we know is coming," Jessyn Farrell, Director of OSE, emphasized in the statement made by Seattle, Office of Sustainability & Environment.
“Seattle is proud to be global leader on addressing the climate crisis and a key part of that work is our commitment to centering the communities most impacted by changes like extreme heat and smoke,” Mayor Harrell was quoted as saying during the grant announcement.
