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We Know What to Do — We Just Don't Do It

The lessons will continue to be taught until they are learned.

Informed experts and many others know what needs to be done to improve our disaster resilience to flooding. We only lack the political resolve to overcome the special interests and other priorities that stand in the way of making improvements. After every significant or historic storm or flood event, there are calls, like the one linked below, to reform our system(s), but our leaders lack the personal and political courage to make any meaningful progress.

We are doomed to repeat the failures of the past — until we run out of money or blank paper on which to print the money. 

We already knew how to reduce damage from floods. We just didn’t do it

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