Fugate: We Have to Build to the Future
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate urged city and county officials at last month's National Hurricane Conference to factor disaster preparedness and risk into proposals for any new coastal development or post-storm reconstruction. But Fugate also said he wouldn't necessarily discourage building along the country's storm-prone coastline as long as the risks are shouldered by the private sector and not taxpayers. "We have rebuilt all kinds of infrastructure after a storm only to (see it) get washed away in the next storm," Fugate told reporters. "Why? Because we keep building to the past. We have to build to the future."
National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb warned that many people on the Gulf and East coasts don't know whether they live in an evacuation zone and don't understand that a hurricane's wind speeds won't necessarily correspond to its storm surge. "These folks need us to be more clear," he said. "We need to make it easier." Continue reading story |