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Florida Panhandle, Central Texas Flooding, Duluth Storm Damage

While Florida was in the news, other disasters happened.

As Americans we tend to be singularly focused on events. Typically there is one disaster and that gets all or most of the attention. When Hurricane Michael's clean-up was just beginning, there was also a big flood event in Central Texas. There, a region went from drought conditions to vastly too much water in a matter of a few days. 

Then I was looking at other events and came across Duluth estimates $18.4 million in storm damage along Lake Superior, which is a paltry sum when comparing that dollar amount to the losses incurred in Florida and likely Texas. However, these "run of the mill" disasters do add up over time. And, as briefly noted in the article, these losses are recurring. 

When we look at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding, the risks and losses are being incurred on the natural hazard side of things. Does their budget allocation reflect that reality?

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.