Prevention is indeed better than cure. This is why the U.S. Housing and Urban Development rewarded millions of dollars to states that invested the disaster recovery funds to disaster mitigation.

Late last week, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan awarded 13 states with almost $312 million to be invested in activities and efforts aimed at reducing human, physical, and economic losses in natural disasters. The monetary reward came from HUD’s Disaster Recovery Enhancement Fund (DREF) and is meant to push states in creating strategies and activities that will cut damage from future natural disasters.

In the past two years, HUD has granted $5.6 billion through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and which is intended for disaster recovery. The DREF stemmed from CDBG in 2008 in lieu of the dozens of natural disasters that year and was meant as an aid for long-term recovery. These 13 states are also eligible for additional help based on their investments related to disaster mitigation.

Donovan shares, “An ounce of prevention today can spare communities a world of hurt tomorrow. We’re making a serious investment in our future by making certain that when disaster strikes, the impacted communities in these states can weather the storm.”

Making sure that a preventive measure is in place proves to be a good investment. The National Institute of Building Science, in an independent study, revealed that a dollar invested in disaster mitigation is equivalent to $4 savings in forthcoming recovery expenses. So the 13 states, which in total have invested $876 million, have saved taxpayers a total of $3.5 billion.

HUD admits that at a glance, investing now in activities aimed at reducing yet unforeseen damages can be expensive; it proves cheaper in the long run.

The 13 states that received the DREF allocation are as follows: Iowa ($84,126,989), Texas ($67,949,391), Louisiana ($32,487,882), Florida ($26,616,675), Illinois ($23,517,970), Indiana ($23,208,985), Wisconsin ($15,276,319), California ($15,000,000), Puerto Rico ($12,000,000), Mississippi ($5,438,712), Missouri ($5,000,000), Kentucky ($500,000), and Georgia ($480,000).