Disaster Response

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more serious in the United States. The property damage wrought by Florida's Hurricane Andrew last year -- quadruple that of any previous calamity -- has prompted government officials, insurers, scientists and relief specialists to call for a new national strategy to deal with -- and prevent -- disasters. Americans in hazard-prone areas are being asked to rethink their living situations, and the federal government is considering a new national reinsurance fund that would stand behind the commercial insurance industry in the event of unprecedented devastation. As the country recovers from nature's recent rampage, experts are pushing for new preventive measures, better coordination by government and an end to the all-too-human assumption that “It can't happen here.”