Number: RL34749
Title: Financing Recovery from Large-Scale Natural Disasters
Authors: Rawle O. King, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: Two important issues before Congress are (1) securing the nation's capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover/rebuild from natural catastrophe events, and (2) determining whether and how the federal government should intervene in catastrophe insurance markets. Since the devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, and a sequence of tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes, Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, and the Midwestern floods in 2008, public attention has focused on: (1) the potential high cost of recovery and financing of natural disaster losses; (2) the supply and relatively narrow scope of private sector disaster insurance; (3) the extent to which Americans living in disaster-prone areas may be uninsured or underinsured; and (4) potential increases in federal outlays for disaster assistance.
Pages: 32
Date: November 18, 2008