It’s time for some tough choices when it comes to preparing for natural disaster

The mega-disasters of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida should be viewed as a clear and present danger to the United States, and Americans must rethink how we prepare for catastrophic events.

More than 160 people lost their lives, and property losses exceeded $250 billion from these super storms that made landfall within one week of each other. The hurricanes’ unpredictable path caused millions of Americans to be caught off guard by rising flood waters.

To make matters worse, another Category 5 hurricane, Maria, hit Puerto Rico last week and caused apocalyptic destruction.  These three deadly events triggered cascading human and economic losses that paralyzed the southern half of the United States. 

{mosads}Hundreds of thousands of residents fled their homes and are still displaced as of today. Vital economic infrastructure, such as shipping ports, power plants, and oil production production facilities were disrupted temporarily. These events left our nation’s first responders stretched thin and scrambling to reach victims.

Despite the devastation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responded like a well-oiled machine in comparison to its handling of Hurricane Katrina.  In 2005, following Katrina, New Orleans and the other affected Gulf Coast cities quickly ran out of temporary shelters, food and potable water. Few reliable public and private sector partnerships existed. 

Today, FEMA and the state and local first responder communities have improved their preparedness and response capabilities tenfold. Strong partnerships and emergency response protocols were in place that allowed the pre-positioning of adequate shelters, food, and drinking water.

However, the magnitude of the devastation still forced Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke to mobilize additional resources last week. These surge forces consisted of workers from across the federal government. They forward deployed to support the 38,000 first responders already in the field. The destruction also required Congress to pledge additional financial aid to the affected states and territories.

While no one can accurately predict when and where disasters will strike next, there are important trend lines emerging that the country must recognize. First, 212 weather and climate disasters have cost the American taxpayer $1.2 trillion since 1980, according to the U.S.’s National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency. Nine out of the 10 costliest hurricanes have occurred since 2000 (not including Harvey and Irma).

Second, “one in 100” or “one in 1,000” year storm occurrences are no longer accurate predictions for catastrophic modeling—hurricanes are happening more often. Third, hurricanes are causing unprecedented destruction, as we have seen most recently in Key West, Puerto Rico, and then on the Caribbean Islands of St. Martin, Anguilla and Barbuda, where they lost 90 percent of all infrastructure.

Extreme weather continues to destabilize our society with increased frequency and scale and strikes on short notice. The current approach to U.S. disaster management—ordering citizens to evacuate from disaster-prone areas and then rebuilding damaged infrastructure with help from FEMA’s underfunded National Flood Insurance Program—is outdated. Instead, Federal, state and local governments should consider new approaches to mitigate future human and economic losses.

Resilient-thinking: This approach looks at how disturbances can be best managed in the face of surprises. Cities should start incorporating resiliency into all architecture plans, policies and strategies to be able to absorb shock and return to normal operations. Governments should also mandate stricter building codes to ensure homes can survive most disasters.

Restricted Zoning: Governments must restrict the building—and rebuilding—of homes and businesses in disaster-prone areas, such as California’s Central Coast, the Gulf Coast, and beach towns up and down the East Coast. Hazards such as flooding, mudslides, and fires routinely destroy homes in these areas. 

Citizen Preparedness: Americans should learn how to prepare themselves to face hazards in the event government cannot help them right away. There will be less impact when people are able to prepare for, respond to, and recover on their own from a disaster.  

Instead of always planning for the last disaster, Americans can and should be better prepared to deal with the next one. Governments must now start making tougher choices to reduce future losses of life and property.

Brad Belzak is a disaster management consultant for the University of New Haven, Connecticut. Previously, he worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration as a director for legislative affairs, and then prior, as a first responder and deputy chief of staff for Louisiana recovery operations during Hurricane Katrina.