Experts on disasters are stressing a common theme to participants of a conference near Orlando: Learn from your mistakes.
Obviously that's not happening much of the time, said Dr. Neil Frank, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Frank showed slide after slide of buildings that had been destroyed or extensively damaged by hurricanes. They had been rebuilt and then had met the same fate.
Speaking to the International Disaster Management Conference, Frank blamed weak building codes for much of the damage caused by hurricanes.
He called 1985 ''the year the hurricanes returned to the United States.'' Eight hurricanes or tropical storms crossed the U.S. coast during the year -- the first time that has happened since 1916. The hurricanes killed 30 people and caused $4 billion to $5 billion in property damage.
But the property damage figures could be reduced by spending a little extra money when constructing the buildings, he said.
''We're selling ourselves short by not going ahead and investing another 2 percent or 3 percent'' to construct buildings that can withstand a hurricane with 125 mph winds, Frank said.
''It doesn't cost that much more to buy a good deal of extra protection.'' Local governments can pass laws requiring that new buildings be better able to withstand hurricanes, he said. Erecting sea walls and constructing buildings too close to the shore also are creating problems, Frank said.
''When you build a sea wall, you interrupt the natural cycle,'' said Frank, explaining how the waves spread sand to build the beaches. ''How about building back a hundred or 200 yards. Get a golf cart if 200 yards is too far to walk.''
Allowing construction of buildings too close to the shore is forcing state residents to pay additional taxes and insurance premiums, Frank said.
''How long is it going to take us to learn a lesson: Live in harmony with the forces of nature.''
Frank also warned paramedics and other medical personnel that they should be ready to handle a major disaster if a large hurricane hits.
''We're more vulnerable than we've ever been before,'' said Frank.
''If we have a big storm someday we could well lose thousands of lives.''
People in Florida could be in greater danger from hurricanes because most of the state escaped the the 1985 storms.
''We respond to our past experience in life. There's always a question of whether it can happen here,'' Frank said.
Residents who have lived in the state five years or less tend to be more responsive to warnings about hurricanes, Frank said.
He said better educated people are less likely to heed advice.
''People with very little education are used to tak- ing orders and respond,'' Frank said.
College students are taught to make their own decisions and tend to want raw weather data that they often don't understand, he said.
About 650 police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, hospital administrators and physicians are taking part in the conference.
They also heard Friday from people involved in rescue efforts after the Mexico City earthquakes last September, and a chemical leak at the Union Carbide plant in Institute, W.Va.
The conference, which runs through Sunday at the Hyatt Hotel on U.S. Highway 192, south of Orlando, is sponsored by the Florida chapter of American College of Emergency Physicians and the Institute of Emergency Medical Services at Mid-Florida Tech.