The Lure of Coastal Life Outweighs The Risks

It takes twice as long to evacuate Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., as it did 10 years ago, say officials. On the Outer Banks, an evacuation could take three times as long as it did 20 years ago. And faith in science can lead to complacency.

"We evacuated for Ivan and there wasn't nothing but a little wind damage," said Arthur Smith, 70, a school bus driver who lived with his wife in a down-on-its-luck bungalow in Biloxi, about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico. "Hugo came and we were ready to go but nothing happened. Then all of a sudden here come Katrina and we waited too long." Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989; Ivan, in 2004.

The storm surge rose 12 feet around their house. Smith and his wife survived by clinging to the top of a school bus.

A report for the Institute of Transportation Engineers in 2002 noted that 200,000 to 300,000 New Orleans residents lacked access to cars. On the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, where development patterns are more suburban than urban, tens of thousands of poor residents get around by bike, bus and bumming rides.

For much of the 20th century, the coastal areas were dominated by the poor and working class. Wealthy and middle-class Americans did not start moving there until the long lull after Hurricane Camille in 1969, when there was a demographic explosion.

In 1960, there were 180 people per square mile in the coastal United States; by 1994, there were 275 per square mile. A USA Today study in 2000 found 1,000 year-round settlers arriving in coastal counties each day.

"Insurance companies were underwriting coastal development with reckless abandon," said Ted Steinberg, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University and author of "Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disasters." "Developers overbuilt to their hearts' content."

Mississippi's coastal counties grow three times as fast as any other county in the state, a pattern found in many coastal states, and fighting this trend is a lonely business.

In 1998, Deputy Assistant Army Secretary Michael L. Davis tried to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from rubber-stamping casino applications without studying the impact dredging would have on marshes that shelter wildlife, purify drinking water and help prevent flooding. This angered Lott, then Senate majority leader, who had recently flown to Las Vegas in a casino executive's jet and had raised $100,000 for Republicans at a casino-industry fundraiser.

Lott got the moratorium lifted, then he got the Army to launch an investigation of Davis. No wrongdoing was found, but Davis was removed from Gulf Coast permitting issues.

Federal Encouragement

Other federal decisions have spurred coastal development. By law, barrier-island homeowners are not eligible for federal flood insurance. Ecologically, these islands act as a mutable and natural buffers against hurricane surges. But when Hurricane Fran hit North Carolina in 1996, the federal government forked over money to rebuild barrier-island roads and bridges -- and set off a development gold rush.

"They used to require 600-foot-deep lots on these islands -- now developers are selling postage-stamp lots," said Pilkey, the Duke professor.