What do you think should be done so that natural disasters not kill people or do any damage to the country?
What do you think the president should do to avoid natural disasters to coast us billions of dollars?

Fatalities is the hard one. There will always be a percentage of the population that won't take basic precautions or waits until the last minute to do so.

Property on the other hand is relatively easy. Whenever a disaster destroys a significant portion of the area (i.e. Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, & Harvey) the local building code needs to be revised.

Another option would be to change Federal flood insurance to be good for one unmodified rebuild. If they don't take steps to prevent damage from the next one, they don't get rebuilt again.

Don't build significant facilities in flood plains. Alter building codes to lessen the adverse impacts of development (permeable landscaping, etc)

Preparations begin with the individual and the family. They build up through the local community and the state, then the national level. This is common sense and it is encoded in law. The federal level can only act at the request of the governor of the state.

Planning and education are key. You can't avoid natural disasters, but you can mitigate the consequences. This is done most effectively at the lowest level possible, with the other levels contributing resources as needed, usually after the fact.

If the individual and the household are prepared, they are not in need of federal assistance, local rescue or humanitarian help. If well prepared they can help those around them, further lessening the need for outside assistance.

Individual and community preparation can also reduce the costs of recovery after a disaster. If you prepare your dwelling to the extent possible, the repair costs are reduced. If you do not live in a flood zone, you will not get flooded. Earthquakes and tornadoes are a bit more problematic as they are less predictable, but the effects of even these can be mitigated to an extent with proper construction in areas where these are a threat.

If you get you and your family out in time, you do not need to experience rescue or medical expenses, or funeral expenses for that matter.

Placing the onus of preparation on the president, any president (for they all have had to deal with these issues) is the wrong mindset.

Don't build in danger zones or change dangerzones in to safe zones.

The single biggest thing the government could do to mitigate storm damage would be to stop writing new National Flood Insurance Plan policies. People would stop being incented to build in places that are getting flooded.

Harvey and Irma got me thinking: why do people live in disaster-prone areas? Why aren't we preparing better? I read two articles that I thought were interesting, and I'm sharing them below, with the particularly relevant excerpts.

Why don't we prepare better? In short, voters care about relief, but not about preparedness, according to this article entitled "Disaster politics gets in the way of disaster preparedness":



https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/disaster-politics-can-get-in-the-way-of-disaster-preparedness/

The next piece is an op-ed ("Florida, a fragile kind of paradise" by Jeff Goodell).



http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/10/opinions/f...dell/index.html

Some might consider it a benefit that, if the infrastructure is rebuilt every thirty years or so, you won't have to bother with those troublesome historic preservationists trying to preserve all that old stuff and get it on the National Register of Historic Places...

For the record, I am one of those guys - let's hear it for old things!

My community takes the approach of preparing citizens for our most probable Big Deal Disaster(earthquakes) through training under the CERT umbrella. The fire captain who taught my course termed it "catch and release". Six weeks of training, a final practical exam, and a backpack of essentials. When the BDD strikes, takecare of yourself first, then your family, then start looking for situations where you can help. Your backpack and hard hat will indicate that you know something....

I have augmented the supplies and gear in the CERT pack and it is stored in a hopefully accessible spot, come the BDD. As we have seen in Houston, immediate assistance will be rendered by those closest at hand. Highly trained first responders can't be everywhere at once.

This is the top, #1 thing that has to happen. So long as people are allowed to build in flood plains and buy insurance for a pittance we will keep building in flood plains. We need to completely remove the incentive to do this by pegging their premium to the actual risk and losses. About 50% of the money paid out goes to about 3% of homes that are continually being rebuilt. I recall one home that's been completely destroyed and rebuilt by insurance 18 times! Stop building in foolish places!

Next we have to fortify coastal areas and improve building codes.

Lastly we have to put everything we have into efforts to curb anthropogenic climate change. It's going to keep getting worse and worse if we maintain the present course.