Sustainable development offers a way out. For some communities, the only solution is relocation, moving entirely off the floodplain, out of harm's way. For others, sustainable development means restricting new construction in particularly vulnerable areas, elevating structures to remove the threat of flooding, or building smarter, stronger buildings that are more hazard-resistant. Post-disaster evidence and inspections following Hurricane Andrew revealed that insurance losses could have been reduced in some cases by as much as 50 percent if building codes had been properly enforced. Adopting more stringent codes shows promise to reduce losses even further.
Sustainable development can help prevent acts of nature from becoming disasters.
There's a bigger-picture side to this, as well. While at first glance this facet of sustainable development may seem unrelated to disaster prevention, in truth they're intricately tied. Global climate change, in turn, may be at least partially responsible for the increased number and severity of storms. By making efficient use of energy resources, disaster-prone communities that employ sustainable development are also doing their part to slow global warming and temper the very storms that threaten them. Striving for sustainability is a daunting task, even for those communities that aren't disaster-prone.