Declarations

Don’t Think About

“It’s come down from grandparents, great grandparents, and they never bothered to insure it. I think the general public finds insurance complex, confusing, something they don’t want to think about.”

—Larry Cox, a University of Mississippi professor, speaking on the high number of uninsured homes in the state.

Firefighters’ Battle

“We used to be able to say it would happen ‘one of these days’, but now we’re saying ‘it’s today’ – fire departments are in a crisis.”

—West Virginia Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis Jr. on the financial trouble facing the state’s volunteer fire departments that is forcing some to close. Their annual fees aren’t keeping pace with the costs of firefighting.

Man-Made

“The disaster at Upper Big Branch was man-made and could have been prevented had Massey Energy followed basic, well-tested and historically proven safety procedures.”

—Conclusion from the report form an independent investigation ordered by then-West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin into the Upper Big Branch mine blast in which worst in which 29 miners died.

Urban Warning

“The issue we haven’t grappled with is how to warn a major urban area. We saw that with (Hurricane) Katrina. We saw that with Tuscaloosa. People were warned very well but still had high fatalities.”

—Jerry Brotzge, a research scientist at the Center for Analysis & Prediction of Storms at the University of Oklahoma.