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I had the same reaction. Hurricanes are not only well understood, they are also something that every single citizen living in a coastal city knows is inevitabl

I had the same reaction. Hurricanes are not only well understood, they are also something that every single citizen living in a coastal city knows is inevitable and frequent enough that they take the precautions personally for dealing with them. They also strike with anticipation, so after you've secured your personal property and made sure you haven't built in a flood plain like a responsible citizen, you have plenty of time to evacuate if/when one is going to make landfall where you live. Terrorism can strike without warning and the same preparations for terrorism would help in disasters like the blast in Beirut.

NotSammyHagar 6y ago
I was just about to post a snide comment "Well not every coastal citizen needs to worry about them at least up to now. Seattle doesn't have...". But darn Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Pacific_Northwest_hurricane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Pacific_Northwest_hurri...
- malandrew 6y ago
  Preparedness for tsunami and earthquake risk is adequate for hurricane risk. The only phenomena not accounted for is high winds and the only form of preparation I can think of there is housing code that requires roofs to be tied down to supporting walls. Having been through many hurricanes including two category 5 hurricanes that downgraded to 4 by the time they reached me, I can't imagine that after a hurricane crosses the olympic peninsula it would still be much of a concern for roofing. For those on the coast the calculus may be different.
morsch 6y ago
You propose that people should look after themselves, and their belonings. Presumably some of the things people need to do in preparation for a hurricane benefit from economies of scale. Temporary shelter, preparing for rescue operations, structural engineering, stocking of supplies. People would probably be well advised to band together in some sort of emergency management cooperative to share expenses and increase efficiency.
- matthewmacleod 6y ago
  I don't think anybody was arguing otherwise. The point is that hurricanes are arguably a less difficult emergency to manage – they are predictable, understood and come with plenty of notice, to the point that individual preparation is both possible and effective. This doesn't mean that centrally-coordinated emergency response isn't still useful – merely that it's not unreasonable for it to cost more to prepare for a rare and unpredictable emergency than a more frequent but predictable one.
ABeeSea 6y ago
Built? Have you ever been to southern central Louisiana? What are thousands of impoverished people in manufactured houses supposed to do? And hurricanes are not well understood. The amount of uncertainty in the cone even two-days out leads to a stunningly difficult financial decision for some of the poorest people in the country.
ProAm 6y ago
> they are also something that every single citizen living in a coastal city knows is inevitable and frequent enough that they take the precautions personally for dealing with them >Terrorism can strike without warning and the same preparations for terrorism would help in disasters like the blast in Beirut. If you live in the US you live in a war-faring nation, that is in constant conflict, at home or abroad. To say it can strike at anytime unexpectedly is hard to believe when we instigate it perpetually.

NotSammyHagar 6y ago

I was just about to post a snide comment "Well not every coastal citizen needs to worry about them at least up to now. Seattle doesn't have...". But darn Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Pacific_Northwest_hurricane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Pacific_Northwest_hurri...

malandrew 6y ago
Preparedness for tsunami and earthquake risk is adequate for hurricane risk. The only phenomena not accounted for is high winds and the only form of preparation I can think of there is housing code that requires roofs to be tied down to supporting walls. Having been through many hurricanes including two category 5 hurricanes that downgraded to 4 by the time they reached me, I can't imagine that after a hurricane crosses the olympic peninsula it would still be much of a concern for roofing. For those on the coast the calculus may be different.

morsch 6y ago

You propose that people should look after themselves, and their belonings. Presumably some of the things people need to do in preparation for a hurricane benefit from economies of scale. Temporary shelter, preparing for rescue operations, structural engineering, stocking of supplies. People would probably be well advised to band together in some sort of emergency management cooperative to share expenses and increase efficiency.

matthewmacleod 6y ago
I don't think anybody was arguing otherwise. The point is that hurricanes are arguably a less difficult emergency to manage – they are predictable, understood and come with plenty of notice, to the point that individual preparation is both possible and effective. This doesn't mean that centrally-coordinated emergency response isn't still useful – merely that it's not unreasonable for it to cost more to prepare for a rare and unpredictable emergency than a more frequent but predictable one.

ABeeSea 6y ago

Built? Have you ever been to southern central Louisiana? What are thousands of impoverished people in manufactured houses supposed to do? And hurricanes are not well understood. The amount of uncertainty in the cone even two-days out leads to a stunningly difficult financial decision for some of the poorest people in the country.

ProAm 6y ago

> they are also something that every single citizen living in a coastal city knows is inevitable and frequent enough that they take the precautions personally for dealing with them >Terrorism can strike without warning and the same preparations for terrorism would help in disasters like the blast in Beirut. If you live in the US you live in a war-faring nation, that is in constant conflict, at home or abroad. To say it can strike at anytime unexpectedly is hard to believe when we instigate it perpetually.