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Build Back Safer — Not Better

This quote has haunted me for the last 12 hours.

Yesterday I sat through a 90-minute breakout session at the Natural Hazards Workshop and I only took one written note, "Build back safer — not better."

Think about the difference between "better" and "safer." Most of the time when people speak to disaster resilience, they will include words like "better." Better can mean many different things. Better might mean BIGGER, more lavish, more jobs, larger economic impact, etc.

Safer is totally different. It might mean not building back in the same space/location. Safer connotes a focus on people. People's personal welfare, both health and economic. 

So in your materials and in your speech, in your recovery planning, think about adopting a "Build back safer — not better" mentality and focus for you and your community's efforts. 

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