Stengel: Harvey Is Partially a ‘Man-Made Disaster’

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy under President Obama Richard Stengel argued that Hurricane Harvey is a partially man-made disaster and expressed concern with Vice President Mike Pence saying that southeast Texas would rebuild “bigger and better than ever before.”

After saying that he “took issue” with Pence’s statement, Stengel continued, “Part of the problem with Harvey, like Katrina, is, these are man-made disasters in part. Because the thousands and thousands of buildings that have been built in Houston on floodplains, on 100-year floodplains over the last ten years. These are problems of public officials and unregulated expansion that has made these areas vulnerable. To me, it’s not about building bigger and better, it’s about building to a 500 or 1,000-year plan the way Amsterdam is and other cities that are threatened like this. This is a problem of public servants.”

(h/t Daily Caller)

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