The next one could be worse
Hurricane Floyd killed 52 people and wrecked 17,000 homes in North Carolina.
But what if a monster like Katrina came to call?

Endeavors
by Angela Spivey
Winter 2006



Does North Carolina have vulnerabilities on the scale of the weaknesses in the New Orleans levee system?  
…”The Outer Banks are just sitting there,” says David Moreau, professor of city and regional planning and director
of North Carolina’s Water Resources Research Institute.  “There’s nothing there to protect them from a Category
Five storm.  Until you move those properties out of that floodplain, you’re going to get flood damage.”

Philip Berke, professor of city and regional planning and faculty fellow at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies,
says that preparing for hurricanes means increasing the local commitment to disaster planning.  Speaking at a forum
on Hurricane Katrina sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill’s General Alumni Association, he says, “We need to provide
stronger incentives for disaster planning.  Communities have few incentives to spend on looking ahead and avoiding
harm.”  …Berke also points out that the federal government has a long history of subsidizing development in flood
hazard areas through flood insurance, tax write-offs for uninsured losses, beach renourishment programs, and paying
for most of the rebuilding of public infrastructure after a disaster.  Berke says that this type of risk-sharing creates
an attitude of, “We get these disasters, we pay for them with the help of the federal government, so why worry?”
Much of the United States’ flood-control policy has focused on building structures such as floodwalls, dams, and
levees, Berke says.  “These structural approaches create a false sense of security,” he says.  “They make us think,
‘I can build here now; it’s safe.’”

…"There’s just so much protection that you can put out there,” Moreau says.  “Nature’s going to have its way.
So get out of its path.”

Read the complete article online at endeavors.unc.edu