Natural Disasters: One Disaster Should Be Our Maximum; then People are on their Own

by: Steve Yuhas

The pictures out of New Orleans are tragic and the loss of life will probably be immense because the residents of New Orleans who decided to stay in the city during Hurricane Katrina are likely to be dead if they have not been rescued by now.  The devastation along America’s Gulf Coast shows the great power of nature, but a serious conversation about using tax dollars (that is to say money confiscated from people all over the United States) to rebuild the homes of people who could not afford their own insurance needs to be had.

For decades it has become the responsibility of government to rebuild home after home; disaster after disaster – sometimes in the same place – for people who either did not purchase or could not afford the kind of insurance necessary to rebuild their home after a natural disaster.  Whether the disaster is a flood or a hurricane; tornado or earthquake, the enormous cost of Hurricane Katrina should be a wake up call that the federal government needs to leave the business of insurance to the private sector and if people cannot afford to live in a home in a place vulnerable to disaster then they should not be able to live there.

Congress passed yet another emergency spending bill giving approximately $65 billion (the actual price may be as high as $125 billion) to the areas devastated to Katrina, but that money was not generated by charging home owners a fee or by collecting more taxes from people who choose to live in areas vulnerable to the power of nature.  The money came from people who live elsewhere all over the country, mostly in places unlikely to suffer the catastrophic destruction of a hurricane so that people can watch the sun set on vulnerable coast lines or live among the stars near enormous earthquake faults in places like San Francisco or Hollywood.

President Bush and many in Congress pledged to rebuild New Orleans and all of the homes and businesses along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast that were lost to one of the most enormous storms ever to come ashore in the United States, but there will be others. 

One condition for rebuilding with money given by the taxpayers who do not enjoy year round sunshine or beautiful coastal sunsets should be that residents must either pay for their own insurance to cover future storm damage and understand that the gift from the American taxpayer is a one time deal and it will not be repeated.

There is no question that living in an area prone to earthquakes, floods, tornados or hurricanes is something that many Americans choose to do, but there should not be an automatic mindset of entitlement if your home or business is destroyed by a force of nature if you did not protect it by insuring it first. 

Few people are covered for hurricanes who live in hurricane zones and similarly few people who live in areas prone to flooding pay anything close to what they receive if their home is flooded, but all of that has to change because if weather experts are right one thing is true: we will see more destructive storms with greater reach in the future.

Living in paradise costs more than living in the cold, snowy Midwest, but people can choose to live wherever they desire, but the cost of living in these places should not just cost more based on the view; it should cost more based upon what government (read: you and me) will pay when disaster strikes and since we’re bailing people out of debt who lost everything to a storm for which they chose not to prepare we have a right to expect people to pay into a national trust for disaster insurance that exceeds what they pay in federal taxes.

The economic devastation caused by Katrina is enormous, but because of the generosity of politicians with our money there is no question that these areas will be rebuilt, but there should now be serious consideration that if people rebuild in places like New Orleans and on the coast that if they do so with even a small amount of tax money that they sign papers indicating that they know it is a one time opportunity that will never happen again. 

Rebuilding the same homes over and over again and helping restore damage is not a cost effective way of doing business with the money of the American people and when Congress is being benevolent with money taken from us in order to gain political advantage, they should consider how much of our money they are spending and how many people live in places with a view not as wonderful as a coastal one.

Hurricanes are going to hit the regions in Florida and the Gulf Coast again, but the taxpayers around the country should only be forced to bail people out who did not prepare for what they know is possible (total destruction of their property) one time.  Anything more is the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over; expecting a different result each time.

When another major hurricane strikes New Orleans or anywhere along the south eastern United States government should give people a choice in how they compensate them (I’d prefer no compensation at all, but that seems not to be an option in today’s political world): either they move to a safer area that is not prone to destruction from a specific event or they sign a declaration notifying them that they are not eligible for future aid if the same thing happens again.

It is time that the government stop subsidizing people to live in vulnerable areas by simply paying to rebuild house after house; business after business knowing full well that another low pressure system forms just about every week for three months out of the year off of the coast of Africa that has the potential to create utter destruction on our shores.

The same thing should happen for people like me who live near fault zones and people who live where sporadic tornados bring destruction.  Nature is an awesome creature that we will never be able to control, but one thing is certain – we cannot afford to continue to rebuild the same places every time a storm hits just because people enjoy the view.  One day I will be impacted with the same type of disaster that struck the coastline only my disaster will come without warning and may destroy my home with the shaking of the earth – should the people of Chicago or Minneapolis really pay for me to rebuild?

I don’t think so, but if they are forced to – it should only be once.

Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO AM 600 based in San Diego.  He may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com