Nathan,
Check out Mike Davis' lead article in CNS (10,2, June 1999), "A World's End: Drought, Famine and Imperialism (1896-1902)." Verso will produce his book on the subject next year, I think. We here at CNS (ahem) are interested in the dialectics of natural and social history, natural and social disasters, etc. It's the articulation of, say, drought, and imperialist offensives and courteroffensives in the last 200 or so years that kills millions/tens of millions, not wild nature or wild imperialists alone.
There are some generalizations one can make:
Downtowns are often built on old creek beds, so, too, is lower income housing, trailer parks; these districts get hit especially hard in earthquakes. Poor people tend to live under volcanoes; in steep mountain canyons where winter mud slides are deadly; on the lowest part of flood plains, subject to the most severe flooding; in housing not built to earthquake proof specs (Turkey recently) so as to increase builders' profits; in the densest part of cities where fires spread more easily; etc., etc. In other words, poor people live where land is relatively cheap and rents low. Almost always this land is more subject to volcano, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, drought, and other natural action.
All of the above holds true locally (Monterey Bay area, or Central Coast), with two exceptions. One is the upscale housing on the beach in Rio del Mar, which got wiped out in the winter of 1982 (it rained and rained); the other are mountain-top homes of size if not elegance which are close to the paths of fires.
A class analysis of natural (meaning of course social) disasters works very well; but much more work, esp. political work needs to be done. To my knowledge, there is no organization, national or international, that comes at the subject, not just theoretically but practically, from a left green/green left point of view. I believe such an organization which would minimally trade info about the weather and natural conditions and the extra risks faced by poor people, working poor, etc., the way the Feds come in to rescue the rich, not the poor, or not so quickly for the poor, makes a lot of sense. Especially given that global warming, caused by the rich countries, mainly, is changing weather patterns (much more rain in the 1990s than ever before in recorded history.) And so on.
Add to this the fact that in all cases I know about, the Jaws (or Enemy of the People) syndrome works such as to make everything worse for the least powerful and poorest. After natural-social disasters (e.g., Miami, LA, SC, many other places), the business classes, dependent on the developers' dollar, the construction industry, the tourist trade, etc. for profits and economic growth, immediately and conveniently "forget" the disaster. This means that little or nothing is done to prevent future trouble, especially for those who are more likely to be killed by capitalism+nature - the working class.
There is also a lot of stuff written about communicable disease, etc., and its class-based, capitalistic causes and effects, not to speak of related topics. Are there any Henwoodians who do work in this area?
Jim O'Connor