Credit where credit is due and paying the full cost of location decisions. Given the chaotic situation on the ground and the time delay between filing a story and the paper hitting the door step, Karl Vick did a splendid job of covering the current firestorms in the southern part of California in today’s WaPo.
Why is this of interest in a Virginia Centric Blog? We have covered this issue in Bacon’s Rebellion – “Fire and Flood,” 3 Nov 2003, “Down Memory Lane with Katrina,” 5 Sept 2005, “Big (Gray, Brown) Sky Country,” 23 Oct 2006 and “A Second Stroll with Katrina,” 4 Sept 2007. The reason for raising it again is the same. Virginia is creating unsustainable settlement patterns just like Montana, California and Louisiana.
Back to Karl’s coverage. He does a fine job of reporting and the headlines are great: “Mother Nature vs. Human Nature: In Calif. Sprawl, Homes are Vulnerable to Fire.” He makes a sharp point with respect to the public cost of protecting private property put in jeopardy by stupid decisions.
There is one thing missing: Would all those citizens be so sure they would move back onto the same street in the same configuration (you can live “near the beach, near the desert, near Mexico, near the mountains” and near the same “nice people” without living next to a leaking gas tank) if they had to pay the full cost?
The cost of fire protection is one thing to add to the monthly budget, so is the cost of a fireproof roof. But how about the cost of insurance. Perhaps what is sold as “homeowner” and “household” insurance should be called “sort of insurance until something bad happens.” That is the case with past Florida Hurricanes and for water and wind damage from Katrina and Rita either by weasel words or by insurer bankruptcy.
Would it not be fair to allocate the true cost of the risk with a guarantee to pay the full cost of relocation and recovery if the projected disaster strikes?
There will not be functional human settlement patterns until there is a full allocation of all location variable costs. That is Mother Nature vs. Human Nature and the imperative of a free market and democracy.
(Full Disclosure: We are following these fires with more than just professional interest. A family friend of 40 years owns a house in Green Valley Lake, CA. Go to http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1005/ to see his current condition. Green Valley Lake is in the center of the donut hole in that map.)
EMR