J. Stephen Kroll-Smith

A different genre than I usually read, this book provided a good education on the disparity of recovery efforts made for different disasters. The author presents valid arguments and provides a great deal of food-for-thought, certainly many points that had never crossed my mind. Mr. Kroll-Smith points out that the economics of a market society determines the assistance and the outcome, not the lives of the disaster victims.

I picked this book up at one of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area visitor centers, which was appropriate since the author compares the assistance and outcome of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake with the New Orleans disaster from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the two events being nearly a century apart. Sadly, while the results were different, the same principles applied to both disasters, as well as Houston with Hurricane Harvey and Flint, Michigan's water crises after already suffering from the automotive industry. Even though different government agencies were formed in the interim to handle disasters, the results remain predictable. The name of the game is economics of a market society, not the people; any other verbiage is fluff.… (plus d'informations)