During the Hurricane Harvey disaster, many reporters and commentators seemed to assume that federal agencies had to take the lead in rescuing the city. And even before water levels had receded in Houston, federal politicians were promising billions of dollars in aid.
However, the large‐scale federal intervention in natural disasters we saw during and after Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to recent decades, the private sector handled much of the nation’s disaster response and rebuilding. The U.S. military and National Guard have long played important roles during natural disasters, but private charitable groups and businesses have been central to disaster response and rebuilding throughout U.S. history.
In this essay, I discuss the responses to various natural disasters in the past. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and the 1913 Great Easter Flood illustrate the impressive outpouring of private‐sector support during past calamities.