At War With the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

The United States and other nations are facing large-scale risks at an accelerating pace. In 2005, three major hurricanes—Katrina, Rita, and Wilma—made landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast within an eight-week period. The damage caused by these storms led to insurance reimbursements and federal disaster relief of more than $180 billion—a record sum. Today we are more vulnerable to catastrophic losses because of the increasing concentration of population and activities in high-risk coastal regions of the country. The question is not whether but when future catastrophes will strike. Who should pay the costs associated with catastrophic losses suffered by homeowners in hazard-prone areas?

In At War with the Weather, Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan and their colleagues deliver a groundbreaking analysis of how we currently mitigate, insure against, and finance recovery from natural disasters in the United States. They offer innovative, long-term solutions for reducing losses and providing financial support for disaster victims that define a coherent strategy to assure sustainable recovery from future large-scale disasters. The amount of data collected and analyzed and innovations proposed make this the most comprehensive book written on these critical issues in the past thirty years.

Howard Kunreuther is Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Codirector of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. He is Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Innovation and Leadership in Reducing Risks from Natural Disasters. Erwann Michel-Kerjan is Managing Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center and teaches in the Wharton School MBA program. He is Chairman of the OECD's Secretary-General High Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes. [bios from authors 7/30]