National Landslide Insurance?

A letter-writer in today's paper is angry because Congress won't start a landslide insurance program for his hillside home. But that wouldn't make sense. Landslides are not like fires or thefts or even earthquakes because the risks are not spread out. Landslides can be mapped—and avoided—without too much trouble. There is little uncertainty. That means that only homeowners on landslides will seek insurance, and insurers will charge them very high rates. Why should all the rest of us underwrite that game? Better we should think twice when building, when zoning, and when granting variances in landslide-prone areas. And all of us should learn more about landslides.

_{Parts of a landslide, from the Landslide Gallery — USGS image}