Governing through a disaster: Lessons from the 1994 Northridge earthquake

This is a CAP cross-post by Kate Gordon and John Emerson.

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may be the worst environmental accident ever to hit U.S. shores. But it is by no means the only disaster. America's short history has been rife with natural and manmade environmental disasters that have tested our nation's ability to balance economic and environmental interests—from the San Francisco earthquake, to the Dust Bowl, to the Exxon Valdez spill.

The federal government...