@JLeslie Ah, the New Madrid fault. Well, Jane Bryant Quinn says you should get every kind of insurance you can. You have a lot of neighbors who are self-insuring, trusting that they won’t be living there for the 50 year or 100 year or 500 year flood, nor for the awakening of New Madrid.
I guess you can say that those who receive FEMA funds are “making out,” when they don’t have insurance, but they have paid for the program with tax dollars. FEMA is another insurance program—only run by the Feds, so the premiums are not separated out for us, and it looks like a free program. It’s not. It’s just insurance—only with a lot of people with low to no risk in the risk pool again subsidizing those who choose to live in disaster prone areas.
Interesting question, though: what is the appropriate definition of a risk pool—people in a designated flood area? People within a certain number of miles of a known fault in the tectonic plate? People within a certain number of miles of areas with past hurrican or tornado or thunderstorm damage?
Or does the risk all even out? I kinda figure that the Northeast is one of the safer areas, disaster-wise. The Northwest seems somewhat safe, although they have all those volcanos, if not earthquakes.
Interesting question—what are the safest parts of the world, disaster-wise?