Today is the first day of the 2010 hurricane season, which NOAA predicts will be more active than usual, with 14 to 23 named storms. (In fairness, NOAA has been way off the mark in recent years, to the relief of the residents of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.)
The Mercatus Center’s Gulf Coast Recovery Project has put out over 50 studies since 2005 looking at the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Below are links to eight studies that state and local policy makers may find useful today and in the coming months.
- A Policy Maker’s Guide to Effective Disaster Preparedness and Response. In the years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region of the United States, scholars, policy makers, and concerned citizens have been working to understand what exactly went wrong in the response to the event and how better to prepare for future natural disasters. Post-Katrina New Orleans presents a unique opportunity to study how and how not to undertake the rebuilding of a major population center after such a catastrophe. Proper study of this subject, if conducted objectively and rigorously, will not only save other communities countless dollars but will also save lives.
- Caring Communities: The Role of Nonprofits in Rebuilding the Gulf Coast. A collection of papers and interviews with social entrepreneurs rebuilding Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Building a Safe Port in the Storm: Public vs Private Choices in Hurricane Mitigation. This Policy Comment analyzes the connection between hurricane mitigation and insurance. As many people fail to purchase government-subsidized flood and earthquake insurance, some researchers argue that market failure explains the lack of mitigation. But empirical evidence shows that markets do value natural hazards risks, including hurricane mitigation, and thus the case for market failure has been overstated.
- The Entrepreneur’s Role in Post-Disaster Community Recovery. This Policy Primer recommends that in the aftermath of a disaster, government relax non-disaster regulations in order to allow entrepreneurs, who are in the best position to assess local conditions and needs in the rapidly changing, post-disaster environment, to step in and quickly respond to the community’s needs.
- The Road Home: Helping Homeowners in the Gulf Post-Katrina. This comment explores Road Home’s policy goals and design, placing them in the context of the destruction wrought by the hurricanes and the role of insurance and government before and after a disaster. It then contrasts Road Home’s goals and design with the policy goals and design of Mississippi’s Homeowner Assistance Program.
- Disastrous Uncertainty: How Government Disaster Policy Undermines Community Rebound. This Policy Comment looks at the ways in which public policy has had negative unintended consequences on the ability of communities to make informed decisions about sustainable rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Based on fieldwork, the authors explain why social capital and signals generated by market and civil interactions are important to recovery efforts and how policy makers can encourage rather than retard grassroots rebuilding efforts.
- Making Hurricane Response More Effective: Lessons from the Private Sector and the Coast Guard During Katrina. Many assume that the only viable option for emergency response and recovery from a natural disaster is one that is centrally directed. However, highlighted by the poor response from the federal government and the comparatively effective response from private retailers and the Coast Guard after Hurricane Katrina, this assumption seems to be faulty. Big box retailers such as Wal-Mart were extraordinarily successful in providing help to damaged communities in the days, weeks, and months after the storm. This Policy Comment provides a framework for understanding why private retailers and the Coast Guard mounted an effective response in the Gulf Coast region.
- Ensuring Disaster: State Insurance Regulation, Coastal Development, and Hurricanes. This policy comment examines how state insurance regulation affects societal vulnerability to hurricanes. States provide insurance for high-risk properties at below market rates primarily through insurance pools. Seven states, including Louisiana and Mississippi, have wind pools, with over 1.8 million policies and a total liability of over $500 billion as of early 2007. Wind pools are financed, in part, through additional charges on other citizens’ premiums throughout the state to cover excess losses from hurricanes. State guaranty funds, which ensure payment of claims of insolvent insurers, also subsidize high-risk properties.
For more information about these studies or to request hard copies, feel free to email me using the link here.