Originally Posted by drgoodtrips

I think the more interesting question raised here (and by Katrina) is how disaster management should be delegated at the state/federal levels. Off the top of my head, I'm inclined to suggest that more responsibility be placed on the state and local municipalities. I think that this helps prevent unfairness in terms of where people opt to live. If you move somewhere that gets pounded by hurricanes/floods/tornadoes/earthquakes routinely, state/local taxes ought to be higher there to account for disaster management than somewhere with relatively few disasters. Or, perhaps there could be some give and take - the feds will step in, but you're running a tab to eventually be repaid from state/local taxes.