To avert long-term disaster, states need to take a sensible, balanced approach, leavening budget cuts with revenue increases.
Disaster States Florida leads the nation in disastrous weather, with close to $1.6 billion a year in damage from hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.
Nobutaka Azumi, Onagawa's mayor, at work on a Sunday in impressive temporary offices put up since the disaster, states the obvious when he says rebuilding will be "very expensive".
Inside the city he reported experiencing difficulty preventing thoughts of the disaster, stating that "all the time I would be feeling scared; I would be smelling dead bodies, and I became hypervigilant because any little noise would make me scared".
Rafael Ruiz, an Army Major who briefly served as Armero's provisional mayor after the disaster, stated that there were survivors who, due to the trauma of the event, were "jittery", experienced "nightmares", and suffered from "emotional problems".
On the Democratic side, the devastation that Sandy has wreaked more than justifies President Obama's decision to return to Washington on Sunday and to declare a pre-disaster state of emergency in a number of states.
E-mail address GO SIGN UP Share Tweet On the Democratic side, the devastation that Sandy has wreaked more than justifies President Obama's decision to return to Washington on Sunday and to declare a pre-disaster state of emergency in a number of states.
Under the agreement announced last week, there would be exceptions for natural disasters, state emergencies or medical procedures in which a nurse is already taking part.
Seeking something new, rather than perpetuating the normal, seems to be at odds with many conceptualizations of "resilience" in which the core idea is to return to "normal" or, after a disaster, to return to the pre-disaster state.
