Practical Solutions

I saw Instapundit try to go beyond finger-pointing and offer some practical solutions that would come out of Hurricane Katrina. I didn't agree with all of his points; maybe I didn't agree with any of them. But I think it's a fair place to go. Of course there ought to be a series of lessons learned here.

1) Don't let our cities sink: Perfesser Reynolds' first comment was "Don't build cities below sea level," ignorant to the fact that New Orleans wasn't always that way. In this case the levees were the problem, stopping the Mississippi from depositing silt in the city and surrounding areas. When rebuilding commences, it must be done hand-in-hand with preserving the coastal wetlands that allow barrier islands to form, protecting the city. In addition, global warming is rising sea levels one to three feet every year around the world. Given how many people live in close proximity to coastlines (for example, um, me), we need to do whatever we can right now to counteract that. This kind of environmental protection is now undeniably vital to our national security, and it should have just as large a priority as any other national security initiative.

2) Pork-barrelling must go: When $252 million dollars goes to a bridge in Alaska that connects 50 people to the mainland, and the New Orleans area remains consistently underfunded, something is deadly wrong. It'll probably take an entirely new Congress to weed out pork; this one seems addicted to it. But it's taking a toll on the public.

3) Hire professionals: FEMA (which should be its own agency, not under DHS) should not be a dumping ground for political favorites, the way it was at the time of this crisis. The top three at FEMA are the 2000 campaign chairman's college roommate, a 2000 election campaign official, and a guy who used to plan Presidential trips. The public who pays these salaries demands competency in these crucial positions, not cronies. This goes for state and local appointees as well, who are probably more accountable.

4) A New Deal for New Orleans: The best way to get New Orleans back to work is to put its own citizens in the roles of its reconstruction, or at least to give them the opportunity. Handing this rebuilding project over to the usual suspects like Halliburton would be simply counter-productive. This disaster uncovered the underbelly of poverty that exists in most American cities. By investing in local reconstruction and giving the urban poor there a stake in their own community, it will engender the kind of wealth creation and urban renewal so long sought after. Public/private partnerships should be undertaken to bring this about.

Those are a few. Getting a flashlight and a few canned goods is also nice, but in a case like this, who knows where they'd be once the storm passed through? Obviously every city is going to have to take a long look at their own disaster preparedness plans, in addition to the states and the feds. A real bipartisan investigation would be nice, unlike the current one pitched yesterday, which the Senate Minority Leader's office hadn't heard about until after it was announced. The "blame game," the junior-high phrase bandied about the White House, is actually called accountability, and whenever you see a group have such contempt for it, you should shudder. If we get accountability in the aftermath, we may begin to actually learn something from this national nightmare.