In Florence’s wake, a mix of tragedy and lessons
Misguided policies maximize the impact of storms
Hurricane Florence has brought immense flooding to many places, but particularly to the low-lying areas of southeastern North Carolina.
One has to wonder what the people of these places did to deserve this. But one also has to wonder what we as a society are thinking.
From the climate change denial prevalent in Washington to a federal flood insurance program that subsidizes development in flood-prone areas, it is almost as if policymakers are conceiving ways to make such storms more destructive.
Even some things that occurred by happenstance — such as the region’s growth as a storage site for pig waste and coal ash — seem like a plot against common sense. North Carolina is second only to Iowa in pork production, and most of its farms are in the very places that are under water, putting billions of pounds of waste held in lagoons at risk of spilling into waterways.
The most glaring example of willful policy malfeasance has to be what is happening in the Trump administration as it pulls out of the Paris climate accord and softens regulations affect- ing everything from auto mileage standards to methane emissions.
What planet do these people think they are on? It is certainly not the one in which shrinking polar ice fields are opening new shipping lanes, where rising sea levels in places like south Florida are creating sunny day flooding, and where a warming Atlantic is producing soggier storms like Florence.
Adding to this head-in-the-sand approach on climate change is the misguided program known as the National Flood Insurance Program. Begun in 1968, it has encouraged building in flood-prone areas with premiums that greatly underestimate the risks.
Since Hurricane Katrina broke its bank in 2005, the flood insurance program has run up a tab with the U.S. Treasury of $21 billion. Barring an unexpected, prolonged period of benign weather, this won’t get paid back and taxpayers will be on the hook for the losses. In fact, the deficit is likely to grow larger.
Florence is a massive storm and a huge tragedy for millions of people. It is also the latest example of the march of folly that is making matters worse.