It was awful, that natural disaster that claimed more than 130 lives and cost Americans and their local governments billions of dollars.
No, not the Los Angeles earthquake.
I’m talking about the 10 days of subzero weather that recently clawed the Midwest and Northeast.
The arctic blast claimed more than twice as many lives as the California quake, and after the last therm of gas, gallon of heating oil and towing bill is paid for, it likely will cost almost as much.
But that’s OK.
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We’re used to cold snaps. We plan for them and pay extra to be prepared.
Sure it’s a pain, wrestling with the storm windows, rotating the snow tires and writing three-figure checks to Peoples Energy or NI-Gas.
It’s the price we pay for living on the great midcontinental prairie. Especially here on the southern rim of the Great Lakes, where temperatures can fluctuate 130 degrees in a single year.
These thoughts came to mind the other day after shoveling the front walk for the umpteenth time since Christmas. I was thawing out in the kitchen, trying to straighten my spine, when I saw a TV report showing sun-tanned Los Angelenos waiting in a long line for food stamps and free Huggies.
Mind you, I don’t begrudge federal aid to those in need, especially not the 25,000 whose homes were damaged and the 7,500 who lost it all. The earthquake was a great tragedy, and its victims deserve our help and sympathy.
But I couldn’t help thinking, as I watched all those beautiful people in sunglasses line up for their federal loans and grants, that it may be time for Americans to take more responsibility for where they choose to live.
If I have to buy antifreeze and storm windows, why is it that only 25 percent of Californians buy earthquake insurance? It costs only $300 a year, about what we’ll spend to heat the house between now and St. Patrick’s Day.
Californians aren’t the only ones who would rather not face up to the real cost of living where they do. The same goes for those on the hurricane-prone outer banks off the Carolinas and the sand spits off Florida. And for those here in the Midwest who choose to live in the Mississippi River’s flood plain.
The Midwest flood is costing taxpayers about $4 billion in federal loans and grants-a big number, but considerably less than the $6.6 billion the White House is about to ask for the California quake. And that’s just the initial cost estimate.
One could argue that the federal government would do the same for the Chicago area in the event of a disaster. But don’t count on it.
Two years ago the South Side and south suburbs were hit with a torrential rain that flooded hundreds of homes and forced the city to spend $6.7 million on repairs and relief services. Last month the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a final rejection letter to Gov. Jim Edgar and Mayor Richard Daley stating the cleanup costs are “within state and local capabilities.”
Actually, FEMA probably was right. The Chicago area was built on a series of lowland swamps and ridges. We shouldn’t make a federal case every time our basements flood.
I’ve got to think, though, that Chicago’s application might have fared better if Hegewisch, not Hollywood, were the media capital of the world. Or if Illinois, like California, had 20 percent of the electoral votes you need to become president.
Another thing that galls about paying for Southern California’s troubles is that non-Californians have been footing that state’s bills ever since the golden boom began after World War I. It cost billions in federal water, power and agricultural subsidies to reclaim those barren foothills of the Sierra Nevada from the Mojave Desert. All so 15 million people could leave places such as Chicago for the Los Angeles basin, where they could roar about in convertibles and call one another “babe.”
But I’m getting petty.
It is true, however, that during much of the 1980s California, with its defense plants and research tanks, got back $1.10 in federal expenditures for every $1 it sent to Washington in taxes.
Illinois got 70 cents for every dollar.
So while it’s in our nature to help those in distress, even those who left us behind for sunnier lives on the fault line, please accept this advice along with our money:
Next time, buy the insurance.