When disaster strikes.

• Author: Nelson, Laura Hagg
• Position: States' ability to respond to disasters - Includes related article on the Federal Emergency Management Agency

STATES NEED NOT WAIT HELPLESSLY FOR THE NEXT FLOOD, EARTHQUAKE OR HURRICANE. PREPARATION IS POSSIBLE - AND EVEN EFFECTIVE.

Joe Moore of Arnold, Mo., knows more about floods than he ever really wanted to know.

"We had to have sandbags up constantly," says Moore, who weathered high waters in 1973, 1982, 1986, 1993 and 1994. "I had to repair my house all the time...My furnace and hot water heater always flooded. I had to replace those things every time." After the disastrous 1993 flood and the lesser flood of 1994, Moore decided to participate in the Missouri Community Buyout Program, started after the 1993 floods. Moore sold his house for market value to the city of Arnold and moved his family to higher ground. The city demolished the house, and the site became public land to be used as open space, wetlands or for recreation. When the far-reaching 1995 floods came, Moore watched from a different perspective.

"I felt relieved," he says. "I was laughing. I even drove down to the old house site. I could see the water coming up, and I was so relieved that I could just sit there and watch it. I didn't have to sandbag."

Joe Moore can get on with his life, but people in Pennsylvania and other northeastern states are still struggling to put their lives back in order after massive snowfall and flooding in January of this year. More than 52,000 homes were affected by the flooding in Pennsylvania - 8,000 homes received major damage. The flood caused more than $700 million in property damage and assistance to individuals and businesses.

In the first two months of 1996, President Clinton declared 28 disasters - three times as many as in the same period for any year during the last 20. The nation has seen flooding from Washington, Oregon and Idaho to New York and West Virginia. Areas burned by 17 wildfires in Texas have been approved for federal assistance. Natural catastrophes are not only more frequent, they are more severe. State spending for disasters rose 37 percent from 1992 to 1994, according to a survey by the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), a group of state emergency managers. States spent $1.6 billion in 1994 on emergency management, which includes preparedness, response, recovery operations from disasters and disaster mitigation activities. Mitigation includes planning ahead to reduce or prevent the damage and costs of future disasters.

When a disaster is declared, the federal government pays for 75 percent (and up to 90 percent) of costs, while states are responsible for 25 percent. Sometimes states have problems coming up with their share. Thirty-five states have budget stabilization funds that can, in some cases, be tapped for disasters. Montana, for...