Every week this year we have had disaster after disaster. This week it was Hawaii’s turn in the bucket with killer wildfires in paradise.
Is there anywhere totally safe from disasters? No, not really. With the weather changing rapidly and our weather patterns shifting to have record storms, heatwaves and other “normal” disasters like flooding, no place is safe in the USA or the world for that matter.
It is a terrible tragedy to have 36 people be identified as being dead as of this writing, but there is the potential for even more bodies to be found.
I had a conversation just the other day with “typical citizens” about when the wake-up call will come that some parts and portions of the United States are either going to be uninhabitable, or too risky financially to afford the costs of a disaster or the insurance to protect properties.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.