FEMA is Trying Harder This Time

But are they spending untold millions to repair their reputation or to save the lives of the citizens of New Orleans? Or both?

My fireman nephew in Tennessee called yesterday to say that FEMA has turned his station into an emergency operations center for the processing of evacuees from Louisiana. They plan to house thousands in the barracks of a nearby National Guard base. You've probably seen some TV coverage of other far-ranging operations that FEMA has underway.

It's not that I think the residents of New Orleans should be left to drown. I just don't think they should be living in a place that requires such heroic efforts to save them every few years. They might argue that before Katrina it had been decades since the city had suffered any significant storm damage. But I would respond that the millions spent on levees, pumps and other measures probably helped protect them during that period. Storms or no storms taxpayers across the country are paying dearly to try to keep New Orleans safe. And it's not working very well. For taxpayers there's nothing easy about the Big Easy.

I read that thousands of the pre-Katrina residents have never returned. They're the smart ones. We should reward them. Hey there's an idea! Perhaps we should pay New Orleans residents to leave and never come back. It might cost less than evacuating them every time a hurricane enters the gulf and housing them after each storm that destroys or floods their homes. And make no mistake about it. An evacuation operation will have to be started for every hurricane that can hit New Orleans within four or five days.

If Al Gore is right New Orleans will be permanently underwater within a few years anyway. Regardless of Gore's climate astuteness it just doesn't make sense for us to encourage people to live where they can't afford the risks they are taking.

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