As communities face increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and disruption, local leaders play a crucial role in the recovery process. To better understand their needs and challenges, Main Street America recently conducted our first national Natural Disaster and Crisis Response Survey in partnership with the Coordinator’s Leadership Council. 

Disaster Trends on Main Streets

Among the 260 Main Street managers who completed the survey, half have been impacted by a significant disaster or crisis in the last 10 years, not including the COVID-19 pandemic. For the survey, we defined disasters and crises as acute, time-bound events, such as tornadoes, earthquakes, or major acts of vandalism.

Hurricanes and flooding are the most common disasters in Main Streets. Building fires were the next most frequent, reported by one in four communities. Less common, but still significant, crises for our Main Streets included active shooters, municipality bankruptcies, and severe pollution and smog. Main Streets in the survey experienced more than one devastating event in the last decade, sometimes in quick succession.

Despite these trends, preparedness for disasters across our network is low: just one-third of Main Streets have a disaster or crisis communications plan, and only one in six have a volunteer response protocol in place. 

Advice from the Survey Respondents

The findings from the summer 2025 survey shed light on the hard lessons that Main Street managers have learned navigating the recovery process. Their responses offer valuable advice on how other communities can prepare for the unexpected.

Note: This summary of the survey results includes quoted responses to open-ended questions with attribution information limited to the U.S. state of the respondent.

Preparing to Lead the Way

Main Street managers are ​‘chaos coordinators’ who play a crucial leadership role after a disaster or crisis. They are visible and accessible and can serve as a clear point of contact and a genuine and effective advocate for district recovery needs. Main Street managers in the survey recommended the following preparations:

• Pre-plan for organizational continuity
• Identify alternative operating options in case you lose access to your office
• Work closely with regional recovery partners to strengthen resilience
• Store critical documents in multiple locations, including an off-site location

Getting Ready for Crisis Communications

Your post-crisis communication plan is a crucial tool to help stakeholders navigate difficult circumstances. Respondents made the following recommendations:

• Determine what information you will re-share with your larger network after a crisis, such as notices about emergency resources for property owners or updates on the hours of the businesses in your district
• Curate the updates and resources you share with your audience, so they are not overwhelmed and can act on your guidance
• Don’t rely solely on digital communication channels when developing your crisis communications plan

Supporting Small Businesses for Recovery

Supporting small businesses can jump-start recovery in your Main Street districts, but it is important to be aware of the real hurdles that business owners face when reopening after a disaster. Common challenges after a disaster include:

• Documenting damages
• Navigating insurance claims
• Identifying resources

You can minimize these ​‘back-end’ needs by supporting your merchants with key disaster preparation strategies, like documenting current business inventory and building conditions, reviewing and assessing insurance coverage, and developing a customer communications plan. 

Securing Local Relief Funds

Many Main Street programs have discovered that there are critical funding gaps in the immediate aftermath of a disaster or crisis, and building an evergreen fund to provide fast and strategic relief can be very impactful. Be proactive and implement digital tools or platforms for your ongoing fundraising campaigns and learn best practices for building a campaign and making ​‘an ask.’ If you have not run a campaign before and have not established necessary public trust, consider partnering with an experienced and trustworthy partner to run your relief fund campaign, such as your coordinating program, a neighboring Main Street program, or a local foundation.

Managing Volunteer Coordination

People are motivated help immediately following a disaster or crisis, so you need to be prepared to organize and deploy them or you will miss your window of opportunity. Here are a few key considerations to make sure you are ready to leverage local efforts:

• Determine which organization in your community is best positioned to run a volunteer hub in a crisis
• Identify who at your organization can coordinate with the volunteer hub and identify recovery projects 
• Consider recruiting needed volunteers now, including those with specialized skill sets, like CPAs, historic preservation architects, or heavy machinery operators

Additional Resources

The survey shows the continued need for additional resources to support Main Street leaders as they navigate natural disasters and other crises. Our Main Street Disaster and Resilience Toolkit provides detailed guidance and case studies to help communities plan, prepare, respond, and recover. 

Small business owners can learn disaster resilience strategies in a six-part, self-paced course called ​“Disaster Resilience, Preparedness, and Recovery Learning Journey.” Please contact Maggie Gillespie, Manager of Innovation, at mgillespie@​mainstreet.​org for more information.

This research on disaster and crisis recovery was inspired by the Main Street Coordinating Program network and Leadership Council. They are working with Main Street America to build a more formal and robust system for assessing local needs after a disaster and a national Main Street response team to support impacted communities. We will share more about this new process and how managers can request recovery support through their Coordinating Programs later this fall.

You can review the full survey results here. You can also dive into an expanded version with all of the text answers. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter to receive additional updates about resources, training, and tools as they are released.

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Downtown Decorations, a Main Street America Allied Member, is this quarter’s Main Spotlight advertiser. For more information about what they do to support Main Street organizations, click here.