Return
to Hazards Center Home Page
The City of Charleston, South Carolina, is the case study for a Heinz Center Project to identify and assess the true costs of coastal hazards, including the less obvious ones. In assessing costs of hazards there is a tendency to think of only the actual physical damage. Other costs that have been identified to date are social disruption, health costs, industrial disruption, loss of tourism, uninsured losses to houses, traffic, drug and alcohol problems, permitting problems, and general reduction in the quality of life. The project is about fifty percent complete.
Discussion focused on several aspects to mitigate losses from coastal hazards. One was to design communities to make them less vulnerable. The concept of "sustainable communities" and FEMA's "Project Impact" were suggested as possible ways to reduce vulnerability amongst all aspects of a coastal community.
There are some current Federal policies and programs that may encourage development. While the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was mentioned as encouraging development, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that the NFIP promotes more vulnerability than would have occurred anyway.
The effect of advertising campaigns to increase awareness and decrease vulnerability were discussed. The positive aspects of the anti-smoking initiatives and seat belt campaigns were mentioned. Could this be done for coastal hazard awareness and development?
Beach renovation was seen not only as a large outlay of federal dollars for a short term use, but really as a program that is "masking vulnerability."
Discussants suggested there is a need for better data regarding the structures which are actually subject to coastal hazards. This data has never been captured.
Building codes appear to be adequate and do work. However, enforcement of these codes is a problem. Increasing code enforcement would reduce vulnerability. The public needs to be educated and thus become a proponent for code enforcement. This could be done by showing the public that tax dollars will not have to be used to restore buildings to their pre-damaged condition, if they are constructed according to code in the first place.
Return
to Hazards Center Home Page
Return to
Index of 1998 Session Summaries