just one month after Hugo’s rage Loma Prieta registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, killing 59 and injuring 3,000 more In the San Francisco area. Already strained by Hugo, FEMA was caught unprepared for the inner-city poor and Spanish-speaking Californians. The agency’s top medical coordinator went on vacation the day after the disaster.
swollen by 14 inches of winter rain in one month, three Texas rivers spilled over their banks in January 1992, causing flooding in a 25-county disaster zone. Fifteen people died and damage to farms and livestock losses were extensive. FEMA imposed building standards on construction it insures in lowlying areas like this, but much of the damage was to substandard buildings that predated the agency.
Hurricane Bob struck in August 1991, raising roofs along the New England coastline and damaging President Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine. It also raised controversy over a FEMA program that Insures development in floodprone areas, which critics say subsidizes danger construction.
FEMA and Georgia state relief agencies handled claims for an estimated $34 million of damage wreaked by Marco in October 1990. There were at least 12 deaths.
