Chapter 1.2

Between 1900 and 2005 in the United States there have been 207 hurricanes to make landfall somewhere along the eastern seaboard and gulf coast. The estimated average total damages at that rate should put the U.S. at a total of 500billion dollars by they year 2020, and that number is an average outlook based on the overall numbers provided in the Natural Hazards Review ASCE as of February 2005. These numbers should be reason enough to prepare a serious housing plan for post hurricane relief efforts.

For the past 200 years Emergency Relief efforts have existed in one form or another. Before the 1930’s legislation passed more than 100 times for some form of compensation due to natural disaster. It wasn’t until 1932 did a government organization exist to address this situation. President Herbert Hoover commissioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932 to lend money to banks and institutions to stimulate economy activity in the wake of a disaster. The next form of government aid didn’t show up for another thirty years. In the 60’s and 70’s the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, was created and oversaw hurricane related disasters until 1979 when it was turned into FEMA by President Jimmy Carter under Reorganization Plan No. 3, put into action April 1,1970. FEMA absorbed both the HUD and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation along with a number of other government organizations that were developed to respond in the wake of a disaster.