Abstract: Earthquakes and hurricanes are important and costly natural hazards. Although there has been a National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act since 1977, there is no parallel statutory program dealing with the equally costly and dangerous hurricane hazard and with coastal hazards in general. A primary reason for the lack of comprehensive federal legislation is the lesser degree of scientific input at congressional hearings dealing with hurricane policy compared with the greater prominence of science in earthquake policy-making. The differences between earthquake and hurricane policy reflect broader factors that inhibit effective coastal hazards policy-making in general. But with these factors come opportunities for earth scientists to organize and press for more effective participation in coastal hazards policy. xD;
Abstract: The authors foudn that local willingness to undertake risk-reduction programs is more closely related to local political demands and community resources than to objective risk of previous seismic events. Further, they found that state mandates have had selecteive effectiveness in achieving compliance with state goals. Findings were based upon data gathered from questionnaires completed by officials from a sample of cities in California and Washington subject to moderate to high seismic risk.
Notes: "The accumulating evidence about the federal and state strategies for mandating or otherwise encouraging local efforts to reduce earthquake risks is that tha have had a more selective and disjunctie impact than desired or intended (May 1991). The federal and state initiatives have had notable successes in stimulating risk reduction efforts among strongly motivated localities but have largely failed to motivate serious responses among other, less interested jurisdictions" (923).
