One short-term economic impact of disasters is that they may force persons who were living in an area hit by disaster or hazard to abandon their homes. That is because people choose where to live based on job or preference opportunities instead of "concern about natural or technological hazards" (Auf der Heide, 2000, p. 1.12). Enforced dislocation is therefore a problem at the personal level. However, when disasters are rare, so is economic effort in behalf of preparedness at the community level. That is because "the benefits of preparedness" are short-term invisible; they only become visible just after a disaster, when motivation to spend money on preparedness is higher. This is especially true of an experience of inadequate interagency communication during a disaster response, such as radio frequencies and/or equipment that do not match (Auf der Heide, 2000, p. 5.1ff). The trouble is that when budgets are tight, benefits preparedness programs seem remote, cannot be proved, thus get "short shrift" with policy makers (Auf der Heide, 2000). Thus at the community level, planning for disasters, which takes money, "is carried out in a climate of apathy and economic restraints" (Auf der Heide, 2000, p. A.1).
Short-term economic impact of disaster can be seen in disruption of business activity and interruption of basic utilities and services such as garbage collection and sewage disposal. That is matched by the dedication of resources to responding to the disaster, such as personnel, facilities, supplies, and equipment (Auf der Heide, 2000, p. 6.1). However, longer-term impacts can be seen in the potential that a disaster has to damage major infrastructure requiring significant rebuilding. An example would be the New Orleans levees that broke during Hurricane Katrina. Because of the concentration of chemical industry activity and infrastructure and the leakage of toxic substances into Lake Pontchartrain, estimates are that the marine popu...