From Governing, this article about a recent IBHS study: As Storms Worsen, Many Coastal States Aren’t Prepared. Lax building codes and poor enforcement are a big problem in some places. An excerpt:
Eight out of the 18 hurricane-prone coastal states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast are highly vulnerable, according to a new report from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). The report, Rating the States: 2018, is the institute’s third in six years. It evaluates the states on 47 factors that include whether residential building codes are mandated statewide, whether states and localities enforce those codes, and whether licensing and education are required of building officials, contractors and subcontractors.
Overall, the institute found “a concerning lack of progress” in the adoption and enforcement of updated residential building code systems across most of the states examined. “There’s not been much movement from [the first report] in 2012 to today,” says Julie Rochman, who stepped down as CEO and president of IBHS in April. “There’s some inertia.”
Recovery Diva 
“There’s some inertia,” is quite the understatement. And yet, is anyone surprised? How many more decades will we talk about planning, preparedness, recovery, mitigation, resilience, you-name-it while paying people at all levels and seeing no progress? This is not working, folks – who are we kidding? I know no one is listening but we need to smarten up about what is/is not going on at all levels of so-called “national preparedness.” With the state of our economy and the outrageous national debt, it’s time to cut our losses.
It surely is frustrating. All levels of government are failing to learn how to mitigate disasters and apply that learning.