What happens if we experience another Katrina-esque disaster in the middle of the current recession?

[ddeclue]

Hurricane season resumes in May....

A major California earthquake could happen at any time (Costa Rica had a major quake today...)

There are also risks from volcano eruptions as well in the west (Yellowstone is a super-volcano that could devastate a region several hundred miles in diameter surrounding it.)

How will we afford another $200 Billion dollar disaster?

Are we really ready for such an event or even two simultaneous events?

Doug D.

[lunatica]

1. They could divert money away from the military

And probably take care of all of the things you mention at the same time. Also they can divert the military since the National Guard has been decimated.

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States


For 2009, the base budget rose to US$515.4 billion, with a total of US$651.2 billion when emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending are included.<1> This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (~$9.3 billion, which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs (~$33.2 billion) or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, ~$170 billion in 2007) - the United States government is currently spending at the rate of approximately $1 trillion per year for all defense-related purposes.


In 2007, US military spending was above 1/4 of combined industrial and agricultural production in the USA.

And there's this little eye-opener...

The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are largely funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget, so they are not included in the military budget figures listed above.<11> In addition, the United States has black budget military spending which is not listed as Federal spending and is not included in published military spending figures. Other military-related items, like maintenance of the nuclear arsenal and the money spent by the Veterans Affairs Department, are not included in the official budget. Thus, the total amount spent by the United States on military spending is higher.

[peace13]

2. How much of that disaster relief actually went to the disaster victims?

With actual disaster management I think the money will go farther.

[FirstLight]

3. hmmmm, here's a thought or two

put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye...

and... where is any of the money for ANY-thing coming from ?

bailouts, stimulus, etc....states giving IOU's instead of paychecks, etc...where is the money for regular day to day stuff?
much less a disaster or a crisis of mass scale...

just get to know your neighbors well and look out for one another, it's all we've got.
Times are surely not geting any better soon, global warming and tectonic plate shift will have some interesting things to say to us no doubt...

all we really have is eachother, our immediate families or our neighbors.
When the shit hits the fan and power is out or food is scarce, we have to be protective of eachother, because there's a lot more wild and inhumane people out there at times of crazyness than we would like to think.
Communities are going to have to help themselves, because the government won't be able to help...

sorry, feeling grim today :cry: :nuke:

[Submariner]

4. I recently heard on the news that we have something like 570

military installations world-wide. I hope Obama's team reviews this issue and shut down what is not needed. That would be a pot of money we would not have to spend.

[The Brethren]

5. Good question, and likewise,

what happens when multiple natural disasters occur nationwide?

A huge fire is burning right now in the Boulder, CO area and they finally gained some ground with it. However, what happens when more problems nationwide occur, such as a Katrina like event plus uncontrollable fires, tornado damages, massive power outages, etc.? That on top of the open theft our monies in the form of the Wall Street Bailout.....which both parties criticized it all over the place....and yet they still supported it. Along with that, add our yrly national debt, our historically outrageous national debt, supporting 2 wars, and so on.

I pray when Obama takes office, that his financial advisors are exceptional -- genius level (no kidding), and have some amazing financial plans already in store....with back-up plans A-Z. Because simple math shows, our government is in soooo much debt! I'm not even sure I would trust governmental backed bonds at this point. And despite what the repugs want to think, the money-fairy doesn't come by during every fiscal budget and just drop off trillions of dollars so somehow our government can **POOF!!** make everything just magically better.

In other words, unless Obama plans on doing another George W. Bush, Junahhh routine and pay Peter by stealing from Paul (our deficit), then we better all pray that there are no more national disasters, or anything else we can't afford -- say another war, like with Pakistan or Iran, etc. Cause the USA is BROKE!!!!!, up the wazoo with China and Japan for covering our arses as is, as Gov. Arnold learned not too long ago. Contrary to the republican of logic of the money fairy, simply put - more money going out of government each yr., for any reason, then what is coming in (taxes), then we have big problems.

Btw, ddeclue, I hope you don't think I'm belittling your question, because I am not. I'm just so mad at the financial disaster we are in right now and if we have a real disaster such as Katrina, honestly, we can not afford it. Meaning we can not take care of ourselves. The lying, corruption, and misuse of our tax dollars has to stop.