4. Are you culpable and are you liable?

Did you cause this mess, either directly, or indirectly through failure to act, negligence, incompetence, or corruption and greed? If you did, the potential impact increases.

This is particularly true of there is a documented history of failures to act to correct problems or to take reasonable precautions. Related to this is whether or not you have exercised reasonable care in determining whether or not you are exposed to disasters and in determining appropriate courses of action for mitigation and preparedness.

And if your citizens do not trust the government or believe it to be incompetent, corrupt, or too slow in acting, even well intentioned and well executed measures may be seen in a negative way or ignored.