ABSTRACT
The year’s stunning losses were a spike in a gradual upward trend of total losses due to hazards over the past half-century (see Figure 7-1). Why have these losses continued to increase? Putting aside theories about global warming and a rise in extreme climate events, losses have escalated because there is simply more at stake than ever before, particularly along U.S. coastlines. A wealth of economic activity, such as tourism, energy exploration, and mineral production, encourages migration into hazardous locations. From an emergency management perspective, vulnerability is exacerbated not only by the sheer influx of new residents-in 2009, almost 160 million people, or roughly 52 percent of the U.S. population, lived in 675 coastal counties3-but also by increased urbanization along the coast.
