Improved disaster resilience is imperative for U.S: report

submitted by Samuel Bendett

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - August 7th, 2012

Increasing the U.S. resilience to natural and human-caused disasters will require complementary federal policies and locally driven actions that center on a national vision, says a new report from the National Academies. The report, Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative, says that improving resilience should be seen as a long-term process, but it can be coordinated around measurable short-term goals that will allow communities to better prepare and plan for, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse events.

“Without innovations to improve resilience, the cost of disasters will continue to rise both in absolute dollar amounts and in losses to social, cultural, and environmental systems in each community,” said Susan L. Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina and chair of the committee that wrote the report.  “Enhancing our resilience to disasters is imperative for the stability, progress, and well-being of the nation.”

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(READ THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES' REPORT)