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Science 24 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5449, p. 2456
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5449.2456a
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Books

LAND USE:
Paying for Disasters

A review by Roger A. Pielke Jr.

Disasters and Democracy The Politics of Extreme Natural Events
Rutherford Platt et al.
Island Press, Washington, DC, 1999. 343 pp. Paper, $35. ISBN 1-55963-696-3.

Platt and his co-authors discuss how and why the United States has come to federalize the costs of natural disasters. Their comprehensive overview is reinforced through three case studies: coastal erosion on Fire Island, New York; flooding in St. Charles County, Missouri; and earthquakes and fires in the San Francisco Bay area.
The author is in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Post Office Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA. E-mail: rogerp{at}ucar.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)