The Issues, No.31 - Natural Disasters and Personal and Government Responsibility

The United States seems to have its fair share of disasters. We have mud slides, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters. In many of these events, some people lose their lives and others lose their property. In most instances where there is loss of life and/or property, government and charities step in to provide some form of relief to help survivors sustain themselves until they can get back on their feet and, in many instances, to help them rebuild their homes and businesses. In most instances also, people from all over the country pitch in to provide assistance to the affected people in many different ways. It is truly a beautiful thing that our entire country seems to rally together whenever disaster strikes.

Of course there is another side to the story of natural disasters that involves personal and government responsibility. Of course we can't precisely predict when a natural disaster is going to occur but there are some things that we can predict and do something about as individuals and government(s) to mitigate the costs of recovery. A good example is Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans. The portions of New Orleans that were flooded were areas that were twenty or so feet below sea level and flooded because the man-made levees that were built to keep the water out failed. Among the relief that is still being provided is a rebuilding and strengthening of the levees and a rebuilding of the homes that were destroyed. It seems to me that by doing this, we are just asking for it to happen all over again, and it probably will. I would think that the people who lived in the flooded areas should take some personal responsibility, at least for the future, and move to higher ground. It seemes to me also that the government(s) involved are wasting money by restoring those areas and that their money and efforts would be better spent in relocating the affected folks and helping them rebuild in a safer place. The same thing goes for people that live along rivers that flood frequently, or people that live where there are fires or mud slides every year, or people that live on the coast of Florida, or in the areas where there are frequent tornadoes, or even people that live on the ocean side of the San Andreas fault.

To spend a lot of government and charitible money and human effort to continually rebuild and restore areas that are destroyed in natural disasters where the chances are high of the disasters happening again, doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense either for individuals to insist on continuing to live in those areas. After the first time, I think the people who live in those places who insist on returning, should understand that they won't be bailed out a second time. And I think that the government(s) involved should spend their money, time, and effort in assisting people to move to safer places rather than restoring places and peoples' homes and business that will surely be destroyed again.