Hurricane Sandy Aftermath

Open Email to Congress:

Dear Representatives and Senators,
    According to the Washington Times, last year Congress rushed to send $60.4 billion in emergency money to aid Superstorm Sandy victims, saying people’s lives depended on getting the full amount out the door as fast as possible. The storm left more than 100 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage along the Northeast coast, making landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012, and did the worst of its damage to that state and neighboring New York.
    Officials initially pressed for $80 billion in federal aid, but Congress cut that by about a quarter and passed two bills in January to get the money flowing. But as of Aug. 31, the most recent financial report from the federal Sandy task force shows that only about one-fifth of the money has been obligated and little more than $5 billion, or 11 percent, has been paid out. On Monday, the administration released a fact sheet saying that in the ensuing two months, another $8.5 billion has been paid out, bringing the total to $13.5 billion.
    There are two important considerations on the scenario.
    The first is that hurricanes are a predictable event. We know they are coming. We just don't know where and when, nor the degree of intensity. We also know that hurricanes involve high wind, high ocean waves, and many times flooding on coastal areas from high tides.. We also know that hurricanes diminish in velocity as they continue farther inland. This means that private and public properties on coastal areas are particular susceptible to damage and destruction from wind and flooding. Fortunately, this information allows a choice. Owners of shoreline property are at high risk for damage, while owners of property farther inland are significantly at less risk. In addition, wind and flood insurance is also available. All of this requires a particular mindset, which is that the property owner must take responsibility for decision of where he owns property and whether he will carry insurance to cover any potential loss.
    In the case of Sandy, we don't know how many property owners insured themselves against financial loss from hurricane wind and flooding, but it is presumed to be small. Otherwise, Congress would not have rushed to spend $60.4 billion in restitution for people who had made bad judgments either on the location of their property or their lack of appropriate insurance. Another effect of the Congressional action is to encourage people to avoid personal responsibility, with the probability that government will bail them out whenever they have made poor decisions.
    The second consideration in the scenario is that while $60.4 billion was allocated by Congress, only $13.5 billion has been paid out in a year. I would like to say that the Administration has proven to be much wiser in its spending than is Congress, but I actually believe that while the Administration would love to spend all the money quickly, it has been incapable of doing so because of its incompetency. Here we have the unusual case where government incompetency has really led to a favorable effect.
    What I am advocating is that neither Congress nor the Administration should be encouraging US citizens to be irresponsible in the handling of their personal property, with the expectation that taxpayers through government will come to their aid on any mistakes they have made.