When Disaster Strikes

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Disasters reveal, not create: Earthquakes, floods, and famines expose existing inequalities—they don't generate them from nothing. Vulnerability is political: Who lives in flood zones, poorly built housing, or food-insecure regions reflects political choices, not random chance. Response reveals priorities: How societies allocate rescue resources, relief aid, and reconstruction investment shows whose lives matter most to those in power. The window closes quickly: Disasters create brief opportunities for reform that almost always close before meaningful change occurs. The Myth of the Natural Disaster On the morning of January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Within forty seconds, the capital city of Port-au-Prince was transformed into rubble. The official death toll eventually reached over 300,000—though some estimates run higher. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Cities choose to burn: Fire-resistant construction exists in every era. Whether it's mandated is a political choice. Codes follow catastrophe: Building codes are typically written after major fires, not before—and they're only enforced where political power demands it. The pattern of destruction: Poor neighborhoods burn more frequently because fire prevention requires investment that requires political voice. Reconstruction as opportunity: After great fires, some cities transform; most rebuild the same vulnerabilities that made them burn. The Fire That Rebuilt London On September 2, 1666, a fire started in Thomas Farriner’s bakery on Pudding Lane. By the time it burned out four days later, the Great Fire of London had destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, and most of the buildings of the City of London. Miraculously, only six deaths were officially recorded—though the actual toll was certainly higher. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Triage is always happening: Disasters make explicit the resource allocation decisions that are implicit in normal times. Infrastructure is frozen triage: Decisions about levees, evacuation routes, and hospital locations pre-determine who can be saved. The "natural" framing hides choices: Calling disasters "natural" obscures the political decisions that shaped who became vulnerable. Sacrifice patterns are predictable: The poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the politically marginalized consistently bear the highest death rates. The Impossible Choice In the five days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Dr. Anna Pou faced decisions no physician should have to make. At Memorial Medical Center, cut off from evacuation, without power for air conditioning or most medical equipment, she and her colleagues worked to keep patients alive. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Disaster can concentrate wealth: Asset prices crash, buying opportunities emerge, and those with capital can acquire property, businesses, and resources at distressed prices. Recovery spending benefits the connected: Emergency contracts, reconstruction projects, and relief distribution flow through networks that favor existing power structures. Crisis justifies reform: Disasters create windows for policy changes that would be impossible in normal times—changes that often favor elite interests. Displacement reshapes geography: Who returns after disaster is shaped by resources, connections, and policy—often reducing populations that challenged elite interests. The Aristocrat’s Hurricane In September 1780, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record struck the Caribbean. The Great Hurricane killed an estimated 22,000 people across Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and other islands. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Famines rarely result from absolute food shortage: Most famines occur with adequate food supply somewhere in the system—the problem is distribution, access, and entitlement. Political systems shape famine vulnerability: Democracies with free press rarely experience famines; authoritarian systems suffer them repeatedly. Famine can be a tool of governance: Rulers have deliberately created or prolonged famines to achieve political goals. Food distribution reflects power relations: Who eats and who starves reveals society's real priorities, stripped of rhetoric. A Question of Entitlement In 1943, as World War II raged, Bengal experienced a famine that killed an estimated 2-3 million people. Rice was being exported from India to feed Allied troops. Winston Churchill dismissed appeals for relief, asking why, if conditions were so dire, Gandhi hadn’t died yet. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Earthquake mortality is a measure of governance: Well-governed societies experience the same earthquakes but far fewer deaths. Building codes are political documents: They represent the balance between safety, cost, and political pressure—often favoring developers over residents. Earthquakes reveal hidden corruption: When buildings collapse that shouldn't have, the gap between law and practice becomes literally visible. Seismic events can catalyze political change: The 1755 Lisbon earthquake helped birth the Enlightenment; modern earthquakes continue to reshape politics. The Governance Test On February 27, 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile—one of the largest ever recorded. Despite its enormous power, the earthquake killed approximately 500 people. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Pandemics reveal social structure: Who gets sick and who dies follows social fault lines that are normally invisible. Disease response is political: Quarantine, treatment, and resource allocation all reflect and reinforce existing power relations. Pandemics can shift power: The Black Death transformed European labor markets; COVID-19 is reshaping work and social provision. Health systems embody political choices: Universal vs. market-based healthcare produces radically different pandemic outcomes. The Great Equalizer? “The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate,” officials declared in early 2020. It was meant to be reassuring—we’re all in this together. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Forgetting is politically convenient: Disaster memory challenges interests that benefit from the status quo. Attention is finite: Political systems can only focus on so many issues—and disaster preparedness loses to immediate concerns. Disaster industries profit from amnesia: Some industries depend on repeated disasters—and have incentives to prevent learning. Memory requires maintenance: Keeping disaster lessons alive requires institutional and cultural work that rarely happens. The Eternal Return In 1900, a hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, killing an estimated 6,000-12,000 people—the deadliest natural disaster in American history. ...