Disaster Deaths and Mitigation Incentives

摘要

Nothing except war tears apart the seams of civilization like a natural disaster. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that 4,645 people died in Puerto Rico last year because of Hurricane Maria, about 20 times as many as the official government count. The authors, from Harvard University, conducted a household survey that included indirect deaths, such as someone being cut off fromaccess to medicine, in addition to direct deaths like being struck by a tree limb. The study drives home the vital safety purpose of infrastructure resilience. ENR's cover story (6/11 p. 10) showed that Texas and Puerto Rico are particularly unprepared for the next hurricane. The solution is to fix the economic incentives involved.