Indur Goklany's post (below) is accurate, but I want to explore further why death rates from disasters have declined. What is it about our wealth that makes us more resilient?

One of the most important factors is mobility. In 1900, few people in Galveston could quickly get out of the way of a hurricane. Today, most Americans own autos and can evacuate a city before a storm or leave after the storm to a safe place.

New Orleans is the exception that probes the rule. We have heard that 60 percent of New Orleans residents are black, but it has been little noted that a third of those black families do not own a car -- nor do 15 percent of white families.It is these people who were left behind when those with cars evacuated. (See this table from the 2000 census for data on auto-ownership rates by race in New Orleans, Biloxi, and Gulfport.)

This is one more example of the benefits of automobility -- benefits forgotten by those who urge people to give up their cars for expensive rail transit systems, etc.

New Orleans, famous as a "compact city" where people supposedly don't need to drive, is now famous as a disaster city where people who didn't have cars suffered tremendously. What is not so well known is that New Orleans has in recent years squandered its transportation funds on expensive streetcar lines that are mainly for tourists and that benefit very few local residents except those lucky enough to own property along the lines.

I have calculated that, in many U.S. urban areas, it would cost less (and provide greater benefits) to give a brand-new car to every auto-less low-income family than to build a rail transit system in that urban area. But when I point this out (while not specifically advocating such a policy), rail advocates and other urban planners exclaim, "We can't let poor people have cars. It would cause too much congestion."