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1
Introduction
Natural disasters are having an increasing effect on the lives of people in the
United States and throughout the world. Every decade, property damage caused
by natural disasters and hazards doubles or triples in the United States (USGS,
2007). More than half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coast
(USGS, 2005), and all Americans are at risk from such hazards as fires, earth -
quakes, floods, and wind. The year 2010 saw 950 natural catastrophes around
the world—the second highest annual total ever—with overall losses estimated
at $130 billion (Munich Re, 2011).
The increasing impact of natural disasters and hazards points to the increas -
ing importance of resilience at the individual, local, state, national, and global
levels. Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as “the ability to recover easily
from illness, change, or misfortune.” To be resilient, an entity must be prepared
for an event and must be able to respond effectively when an event occurs. Devel-
oping resilience is therefore a continuous process, while resilience itself is the
outcome of that process.
To identify ways in which to increase the nation’s resilience to natural
disasters and hazards, the National Research Council formed the Committee on
Increasing National Resilience to Hazards and Disasters (Appendix A) under the
joint oversight of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy and
the Disasters Roundtable. The name of the study committee is meant to be expan -
sive rather than restrictive. Thus, the term “national resilience” refers to resilience
at the federal, state, and local levels. Also, while the committee is focused on
hazards and disasters arising from natural processes, its purview includes events
caused by humans, such as acts of terror, with effects comparable to those of
major earthquakes, floods, storms, or fires.
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6 INCREASING NATIONAL RESILIENCE TO HAZARDS AND DISASTERS
The overarching goal of the committee is to increase the nation’s resilience
at federal, state, local, and community levels through actionable recommenda -
tions and guidance on the best approaches to reduce adverse impacts from haz -
ards and disasters. Specifically, the committee seeks to
• Define “national resilience” and frame the primary issues related to
increasing national resilience to hazards and disasters in the United
States.
• Describe the state of knowledge about resilience to hazards and disasters
in the United States.
• Provide goals, baseline conditions, or performance metrics for resilience
at the U.S. national level.
• Outline additional information or data and gaps and obstacles to action
that need to be addressed to increase resilience to hazards and disasters
in the United States.
• Present conclusions and recommendations about the approaches that
are needed to elevate national resilience to hazards and disasters in the
United States.
At its first meeting in September 2010, the committee adopted a provisional
definition of resilience:
The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, or more success-
fully adapt to actual or potential adverse events.
This definition encompasses a very wide range of topics and considerations,
including
• Improving coordination and organization among the various entities that
have roles in all phases of disasters.
• Determining successful practices, as well as means to improve on these
practices.
• The need to integrate information from the natural, physical, technical,
economic, and social sciences.
• Measures of a community’s ability to withstand disasters.
• Assessments of progress toward successful recovery from a disaster.
• Cross-cutting topics, such as critical infrastructure, insurance and rein-
surance, and ways that hazards cascade into disasters or catastrophes.
Underlying these issues are several more fundamental questions: What
makes a community resilient? How can resilience be measured? How can prog -
ress toward achieving resilience be assessed? What tools are most effective for
enhancing resilience?
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7
INTRODUCTION
Also at its September 2010 meeting, the committee made plans to conduct
regional workshops in three locations—the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the
Midwest, and Southern California. The first of those workshops was held in
New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast on January 18–21, 2011, and
focused on addressing the points of the statement of task through examination of
the effects of hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, and human-induced disas -
ters on the Gulf Coast and the resilience of areas near the coast to future disasters
(Appendix B). Experts who provided input to the committee at the meeting rep -
resented a wide range of perspectives on disaster resilience, including physical
and engineering sciences, social sciences, local and state government, the private
sector, public health, and community-based organizations (Appendix C).
This report summarizes the presentations and discussions that occurred
during the workshop. After this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 provides two
complementary perspectives on New Orleans before and after Katrina. Chapter 3
summarizes what the committee saw and heard on a day-long tour of New Orleans
and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to gather information relevant to the committee’s
charge. Chapters 4 through 8 summarize the presentations and discussions that
occurred as part of workshop panels on five key themes: (1) insurance and real
estate, (2) critical infrastructure, (3) governance, (4) social capital, and (5) healthy
populations and responsive institutions. A final chapter summarizes the observa -
tions made in the open discussion during the final session of the workshop.
A national strategy to increase resilience to hazards and disasters can take
advantage of substantial assets in the United States. The nation has a rich body
of technical, natural, and social science knowledge about disasters, disaster cau -
sation, cascading effects, preparedness and planning, response, recovery, and
mitigation. Both the workshop on the Gulf Coast and the committee’s overall
study seek to build on this knowledge to increase public safety, sustain economic
productivity, and protect the human and natural environment.
Statement to the Committee from Senator Mary Landrieu
At the beginning of the committee’s workshop, Senator Mary Landrieu, who
in 1996 became the first woman from Louisiana elected to a full term in the U.S.
Senate, spoke to the committee in a videotaped presentation about its project.
Her remarks below have been slightly shortened. The complete video of Senator
Landrieu’s remarks is available on the study’s Web site at http://www.dels.nas.edu/
global/dr/Collaborative-Projects.
I’d like to commend you for undertaking this research that is so critical to our
nation’s future, and frankly of such interest to the world. Increasing our resilience
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8 INCREASING NATIONAL RESILIENCE TO HAZARDS AND DISASTERS
to disasters through solid science, targeted investments, and community and
political will, will ultimately save countless human lives and billions of dollars.
I’m so pleased that the National Academy of Sciences has chosen to hold its
first regional workshop with this important study in Louisiana. Louisiana has ben-
efited from the wise counsel of the National Academy of Sciences on issues such
as coastal restoration, flood mapping, flood protection, and levee construction.
Gathering in New Orleans allows the Academy to hear directly from people
who have experienced disasters firsthand. Frankly, and unfortunately, I guess,
there are no better experts than those who have lost their homes and suffered
through the tragedies of so many hurricanes and floods, and then the oil spill in
our part of the country. The stories you will hear are about survival, hope, and a
never-ending well of resilience.
In the aftermath of the federal levee failure during Hurricane Katrina, the flood-
ing and widespread destruction brought by Rita, Gustav, and Ike, and the massive
oil spill that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig last year, we
have overcome many significant challenges and learned a great deal about our-
selves in the process. We’re happy to share what we have learned with you.
Significant hurdles lie ahead for the people of the Gulf Coast as we continue
to recover from these events, but the people of this region press on, sustained by
their unwavering determination to rebuild homes, lives, and livelihoods—a commit-
ment to our communities. We are blessed with an immense and wonderful culture
and a great plethora of natural resources.
We also know in our hearts and in our minds that people can live safely at or
below sea level. We have to have the right science, the right engineering, and the
right commitment to make that possible. We’ve dedicated ourselves not only to
rebuilding, but to building smarter and stronger; not to rebuild what we were but
to build what we dreamed we can be.
Restoring our fragile coastline, bolstering emergency plans and capabilities,
and improving offshore drilling so that we can do it safely and securely are all
important goals of ours. In addition to becoming more resilient, we’re also creat-
ing communities that are more sustainable by making them safer, healthier, more
livable, and more economically vibrant.
In New Orleans alone, we’ve rescued a failing public school system; developed
the largest per capita presence of charter schools anywhere in the country hav-
ing tremendous success; and embarked upon a comprehensive reconstruction
program to offer state of the art facilities to our children. The region has developed
a network of community healthcare clinics better than the healthcare system that
existed before, offering preventive care and mental health services throughout
the city.
Governments must do a better job of communicating disaster risk, training, and
exercising for emergencies. Adopting and enforcing building codes, investing in
hazard mitigation, and leveraging the skills and resources of community nonprofits
and the private sector are only a few things that we must continue to do.
Households, in turn, and individuals must do their best to plan ahead, maintain
their property, prepare a supply kit, heed local evacuation orders, and purchase
reasonable levels of insurance.
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9
INTRODUCTION
Improving resilience to disasters must not be an afterthought, nor is this merely
an academic exercise. It is my sincere hope that this study will increase the
urgency around this important issue and help transform it into a national priority.
We also can look to other nations. The Netherlands is one. I’ve made three
trips to the Netherlands to think about how they operate using water—not running
from it but learning to live with it. We are a water city in New Orleans. We hope
to incorporate many of the lessons we’ve already learned in the Netherlands and
from some of our partners around the world. I know that your eyes will be national,
but international opportunities are there as well, for what we can do better here in
the Gulf of Mexico.
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