Word: prone
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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From the flagellants of the Middle Ages to the doomsayers of Y2K, humanity has always been prone to good old-fashioned the-end-is-nigh hysteria. The latest cause for concern: that the earth will be destroyed and the galaxy gobbled up by an ever-increasing black hole next week...
...military version, meanwhile, got bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roadside bombs shredded the minimally armored vehicles, killing hundreds of U.S. troops; "up-armored" models proved safer but prone to rollover. According to an August report, the Army is testing various next-generation vehicles--including a redesigned humvee dubbed the Expanded Capacity Vehicle II--and plans to spend billions on new trucks...
Many folks in the rest of the country wonder why anyone would want to live in such a flood-prone place. Luke becomes visibly tense at the subject and responds, "It's a way of life," referring to living on the water. "The new buildings are being built on pilings. So you can take the flood. Wind, you just don't know. But everyone's going up," he says, referring to the homes along the bayous perched on stilts. "You just set yourself up for the lick, you know?" The "lick" is a euphemism for heavy flooding...
...late Sunday Col. Mike Edmondson, state police commander, said he believed that 90% of the population had fled the Louisiana coast. The exodus of 1.9 million people is the largest evacuation in state history, and thousands more had left from Mississippi, Alabama and flood-prone southeast Texas...
...magazine.] ADMINISTRATION ANALYSIS Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 HIGH HOPES In 1979 Carter merges some 100 disconnected aid programs into a new agency in order to better coordinate U.S. disaster response. The organization proves unwieldy and ill-equipped to implement preventive measures or deter residents from rebuilding in disaster-prone areas like Dauphin Island, Ala., obliterated by Hurricane Frederic and subsequent storms. SUCCESS FAILURE Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 WIDENING REACH Reagan reinterprets FEMA's role to fit the Cold War, granting it power to cope with a nuclear attack and even, reportedly, implement martial law--prompting clashes over jurisdiction with...