Zoning Danger

"Hurricane Charley demonstrated last weekend why some of the nation's most vulnerable folk - the ill, the disabled, and the frail elderly - should think twice before taking up residence in the most dangerous parts of the hurricane-prone coastal regions. For those most at risk, public policymakers ought to discourage or prohibit development on the riskiest lands.

Since 1886, on average, three to four tropical storms or hurricanes have made landfall on the continental United States every year. They are not new phenomena. What is new is the rapid growth of populations in hurricane-prone zones. (About 1,000 people a day move into Florida.) What is most frightening is the growing number of at-risk people, especially the frail elderly. Florida, where 78 percent of the population lives in coastal counties, has more than 700 nursing homes."

Thanks to Chris Steins