Disaster Responses, Inadequate Foresight

Musings

Hurricane Helene swept  ashore this week  causing considerable damage and over 200 deaths in the southeastern states of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Much of the damage is inland from the coast which is somewhat different from what we usually think of with hurricanes. We normally anticipate that the hurricane wind and rain and the push of ocean water onto the coast will damage the coast the most and dissipate as it moves inland. Helene did cause a lot of damage on the coast but its winds and large amounts of rain also created a great deal of flooding and damage inland.  

The damage seemed to be particularly unusual even for a stronghurricane. Certainly over 200 deaths is not our norm for such storms. Perhaps some amount of this is caused by the changing climate and stronger storms which last longer. However, a great deal of the damage is also a failure of the local political entities who failed to follow best practices with building requirements and anticipation of response to natural disasters. We can study storms and perhaps predict a degree of their changing nature but clearly the governmental failure to provide necessary regulations and marshalling of response efforts can be corrected if there is  political willpower.

Contemplations

With this storm we have seen an excessive amount of damage due to the construction of homes and communities where they don't belong. This is the result of communities failing to have the restrictions and building permit requirements that are necessary to minimize damage from  storms. On the coast everyone wants to be right on the coast and as close as possible to the water. If you're on a hillside or a mountain everyone wants to be where they can get a good view and perhaps even buildinto the side of the hill or mountain so that they can have an extraordinary setting. All of those locations, where everyone wants to be, are the worst places to be building. They are most prone to damage from storms. Further if you build there you certainly need a significant amount of additional structural protections if you are not going to have your house, business or infrastructure ruined or swept away.

A significant part of Helene's damage can be attributed to laxbuilding permit enforcement as some states such as North Carolina had not even adopted the recommended structural requirements for homes.  Further, the areas in river valleys and on hillsides are of greater risk from storms or earthquakes. They need to have more building reinforcement and setbacks than other parts of the community. Of course, that increases the price of the structure. No one wants that. Further, few people anticipate the fact that they may be damaged in a natural disaster. That is why the governmental regulation is there. The government is supposed to have studied these issues and knows what is recommended in the building codes and can enforce those codes.

The contrary  position is the developers and building companies who want to bring in their building at the lowest possible price to enhance it's sales value.  Extra reinforcement may protect the property but the builder knows it will make it harder to sell. Therefore, they lobby for any number of exceptions, or at the state legislature to have the state legislature refuse to adopt the recommendations of the national organization which reviews and revises the recommended building codes  There are strong lobbying efforts by the developer organizations not to implement them. The failure to pass those codes seems to be pure negligence. However, legislative entities are not liable for negligence, but they can be voted out of office. The trouble isthat people rarely think about this issue when they are voting as they get caught up in all sorts of political silliness instead of serious policy discussions. There is nothing very sexy abouttrying to get elected based on building policy. The electorate trusts those in office to act appropriately in setting policy as opposed to responding to lobbyists. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

Anyone who has been part of a local government knows that stormwater runoff is a constant concern. If not properly anticipated, it will fill the low spots on the ground and from there start flooding outwards. Therefore, you should not be building in those low spots and you should provide large areas such as wetlands to try and absorb the runoff water so it doesn't start to form an over loaded river rushing downhill. It is amazing how many plots of property have been constructed with people living or  working in valleys next to waterways and  everyone is surprised when  flooding happens.

The potential for windstorms, rain and ocean storm surge are known. A great deal of the damage can be anticipated, Butpoliticians are busy getting elected and not worried about a storm that might be years away. One of the best examples was Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans. All the officials there protested that no one could have predicted such a large hurricane hitting the city and therefore they weren't to blame. However, hurricane Ivan of almost the same size had passed through just a month earlier on a course just to the east of the city. Further the possibility of a hurricane causing havoc in the city have been predicted for years. Yet the politicians were  sure that they should not have been on notice of that fact. The elected officials have to be called to task.

In anticipating  natural disasters the final step the politicians have to work on and improve is their response system and how they are going to marshal the assets for a disaster. It is not possible to have the response vehicles and supplies stored everywhere. However, they need to be preset at appropriate locations which presumably is already anticipated but then thetiming and methods by which they will be moved to the affected area must be thought through in the planning of routes and construction of a community. If the only road to get to a locationis on a hillside and it is wiped out the community is not likely to have enough helicopters to provide sufficient response. The same is true of bridges. They must be reinforced to avoid being knocked down. If constructed just to allow some cars to drive across does not  mean that they are sufficiently built to withstand a storm. Think ahead, don't just approve a proposal which is presented until  all of the issues that might evolve to affect the community are considered.

Finally, fund the necessary work.  Every state in the country appears to have a serious deficiency in funding repairs to infrastructure.   After every disaster FEMA, the federal disaster agency, announces it is short of funds. Most recently after Helene the Republican speaker of the House of RepresentativesPaul Johnson announced that for the time being FEMA had enough money to address the problems from Helene and future action to fund that entity by the House could wait. However, this week we have another hurricane headed to Florida and it's expected to land there before the week is out. It does seem that Mister Johnson should anticipate issues a little farther into the future.

Thoughts

The damage that occurred in Helene could not have been avoided but the extent of the damage could have been had the various legislatures and county and local commissions been adopting the best practices for their building regulations and then enforcing them. Failure to do that leads to problems In Florida the collapse of a high rise residential condominiumoccurred after the building inspectors found problems with the high rise but did not enforce the necessary corrections. No one likes  to have government  regulations but without the regulation and enforcement the community is at risk.

Silence Dogood

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