Applying the lessons of Sandy

Two years after Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern Seaboard, the country still has yet to make headway on a national strategy that could prevent a repeat of the kind of damage it incurred from Sandy.

The need for such a plan has become increasingly clear. Catastrophes ranging from fires to droughts to floods have struck every corner of the country. With global average temperatures and sea levels on the rise, the damage and safety risks posed by extreme weather are becoming more severe.  It’s time for a real plan to shore up areas in harm’s way for the weather extremes yet to come. While natural disasters cannot be avoided, preparation can mean the difference between a setback and a catastrophe.

{mosads}A far-ranging hazard mitigation plan would include a variety of measures to shore up our defenses for disasters of all stripes. First, flood maps would be redrawn to account for scientific evidence on flooding and storm surges. Building codes also ought to be updated with the latest climate data to prevent the kinds of chaos seen at hospitals and nursing homes during Sandy. In addition, infrastructure such as electric grids would be hardened against the elements and diversified to include distributed generation resources, ensuring that power failures like the one that dimmed lower Manhattan would not happen again. Finally, homes and communities in harm’s way could be better buffered with expanded wetlands and other natural ecosystems.

Hazard mitigation has been proven to be more cost-efficient than a post-facto response. A dollar spent on mitigation saves four in cleanup bills after a storm has passed. And mitigation does more than save dollars and property – it can save lives. The Multihazard Mitigation Council has calculated that mitigation efforts between 1993 and 2003 protected more than 220 lives and prevented almost 4,700 injuries. These stats should be more than enough proof that hazard mitigation does not just look good on paper: it pays off in real results.

Lawmakers can no longer be content to scramble in response after a storm has swept through. Disaster costs are soaring with each passing year. Hurricane Sandy alone racked up more than $50 billion in damages across the New York region, not to mention the human toll on those still piecing their lives together two years later, a burden acutely felt by low and middle income communities. A recent SwissRe report, meanwhile, calculated that a stronger storm could debilitate the region with over $100 billion in recovery costs.

The superstorm inflicted other costs as well. The National Flood Insurance Program, for example, took a beating from Sandy, notching up billions in debt and clouding its future. The program badly needs discipline to bring its financial house in order, discipline that includes raising flood insurance rates to accurate levels of risk while addressing affordability concerns for low-income and fixed-income households. Congress abandoned an attempt to adjust taxpayer subsidizing of rates earlier this year after severe political pressure, putting further stress on the program for the foreseeable future.

The time has passed, however, for one-off fixes. Congress needs to begin addressing the root cause of increasingly potent disasters to slow their risks, and come up with a long-term, far-ranging plan to make disaster planning proactive and responsive to those who are most vulnerable.

A variety of measures to accelerate hazard mitigation have already been proposed, from inclusion of better data in flood risk maps to better coordination of disaster planning at the federal and state level, but many of these measures are currently stalled in Congress. It is vital that lawmakers accelerate progress on these measures. We cannot wait for the next Sandy to take action.

Anderson is director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Bydlak is president of the Coalition to Reduce Spending.