Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The United States faces significant risks from many types of natural hazards, including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods. Increasing numbers of Americans are living in areas prone to these hazards. Earthquakes occur without warning and can have devastating effects. According to the United States Geological Survey, the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 and the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 killed nearly 100 people, injured 12,757, and caused $33 billion in damages.
Nearly all States face some level of seismic risk. Twenty-six urban areas in 14 States have a significant seismic risk. Severe weather is the most costly natural hazard, measured on a per year basis. According to data from the National Weather Service over the last 10 years, severe weather has caused an average of 278 fatalities and $24.3 billion of property damage per year. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy inflicted the worst power outage caused by a natural disaster in the history of the United States and resulted in an estimated $70 billion in damages.
The 2005 hurricane season was one of the most destructive in United States history, killing 1,836 people, and causing $80 billion in damage. The United States Fire Administration reports that 38 percent of new home construction in 2002 was in areas adjacent to, or intermixed with, wildlands. Fires in the wildland-urban interface are costly. For example, the 2007 California Witch fire alone caused $1.3 billion in insured property losses, according to the Insurance Services Office (ISO).
In addition, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2009 that the Federal spending for wildfire suppression between 2001 and 2007 was, on average, $2.9 billion per year. Developing better knowledge about natural hazard phenomena and their effects is crucial to assessing the risks these hazards pose to communities. Instrumentation, monitoring, and data gathering to characterize earthquakes and wind events are important activities to increase this knowledge. Current building codes and standards can mitigate the damages caused by natural hazards.
The Institute for Business and Home Safety estimated that the $19 billion in damage caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1994 could have been reduced by half if such codes and standards were in effect. Research for the continuous improvement of building codes, standards, and design practices—and for developing methods to retrofit existing structures—is crucial to mitigating losses from natural hazards. Since its creation in 1977, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) has supported research to develop seismic codes, standards, and building practices that have been widely adopted.
The NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures and the Guidance for Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings are two examples. Research to understand the institutional, social, behavioral, and economic factors that influence how households, businesses, and communities perceive risk and prepare for natural hazards, and how well they recover after a disaster, can increase the implementation of risk mitigation measures. A major goal of the Federal natural hazards-related research and development effort should be to reduce the loss of life and damage to communities and infrastructure through increasing the adoption of hazard mitigation measures.
Research, development, and technology transfer to secure infrastructure is vitally important. Infrastructure that supports electricity, transportation, drinking water, and other services is vital immediately after a disaster, and their quick return to function speeds the economic recovery of a disaster-impacted community.