Charley, frances, ivan and Jeanne—the four merciless hurricanes that serially clobbered Florida over a recent six-week span—will long live in infamy throughout the state. Not generally rated infamous, except by economists, was the state's policy response to the disaster. Every county in Florida was beaten up by the storms. Insured losses surpassed even the $20 billion record (in today's dollars) set by Andrew in 1992. The Red Cross estimated that 9 million people in Florida were evacuated from their homes. Millions of homes and offices in the state were without power for days. And state policy made things worse.
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