Storm and Disaster Relief
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 656 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2018
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nicole Gelinas and Brian Anderson discuss recent disaster-relief efforts in the United States, the federal government's role in such assistance, and how national flood insurance and other recovery programs could be reformed.
Since 2005, Washington has spent nearly $300 billion on disaster recovery, with state and local governments spending billions more. This figure doesn't even include last year's devastating storm season, which ravaged Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Federal and local authorities should concentrate the bulk of their spending on the infrastructure necessary to limit storm damage, and on immediate relief after storms have struck. Right now, however, the majority of disaster-relief expenditure goes toward repairing flooded properties after hurricanes--a task better left to the private sector.
Read Nicole Gelinas's story, "Storm Surge," in the Winter 2018 issue of City Journal.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to 10 Blocks. This is your host, Brian Anderson, editor of City Journal. Since 2005, |
| 0:07.0 | the federal government has spent nearly $300 billion on disaster assistance, not counting last year's |
| 0:13.0 | devastating storm season, which ravaged Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. |
| 0:20.0 | Much of the nation's spending on disaster relief |
| 0:22.3 | goes to relief efforts after a major hurricane has hit, for example, providing food and shelter |
| 0:27.6 | for residents, rebuilding flooded homes and businesses, and repairing damaged infrastructure. What |
| 0:33.9 | are we doing, though, to mitigate the effects of storms before they hit? |
| 0:40.5 | Should we try to make our coastlines more resilient? |
| 0:48.4 | In the winter 2018 issue of City Journal Nicole Jolinas discussed the role of FEMA in spending disaster recovery funds and looked into ways to reform the National Flood Insurance Program. |
| 0:53.8 | We'll talk to Nicole after this. |
| 1:07.2 | Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson. |
| 1:10.3 | Thanks for joining us for the 10 Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests. |
| 1:22.2 | Joining us on the show today is Nicole Jelineas. |
| 1:25.5 | Nicole is a contributing editor of City Journal, a senior fellow |
| 1:28.5 | at the Manhattan Institute, and a writer for the New York Post. You can follow her on Twitter |
| 1:33.6 | at Nicole Jolinas. Her newest essay for City Journal is called Storm Surge. The federal government |
| 1:39.8 | is spending too much on post-disaster rebuilding and too little on prevention. And it appeared in our |
| 1:46.5 | winter 2018 issue. Nicole, welcome back to 10 blocks. Thank you, Brian, for having me. Let's start with |
| 1:53.8 | some basic definitions. What is the federal flood insurance program and what are its origins, and how |
| 2:00.1 | does it work exactly? Well, the national flood insurance |
| 2:04.1 | program is one of three big portions of our national disaster relief spending. The other two, |
| 2:12.6 | as you mentioned, are immediate relief after a disaster and just getting people food and medicine |
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