Fix the bridges and the dams

The day after Katrina hit, I told Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, "A right-wing government that strangles public expenditures for public works is largely responsible for what happened in New Orleans." (Katrina Compounded, Sept. 1, 2005)

Of course, I was referencing Grover Norquist's infamous, and modestly shocking, assertion that he wanted to "shrink government down to the point where it can be strangled in a bathtub." The surprise was not Norquist's candor. The shock was to millions of voters who discovered the implications one stormy day.

Face it, while FEMA is a mess and it certainly could improve by replacing inept pals of the President, the real story was in the lack of proper infrastructure to protect New Orleans. NOLA, as my friends from the flood-socked city call their home, was done in the moment Republican reactionaries won control of the government and took enough Democrats with them.

Of course, I love the excuse that even if we put more money into public works, how would we stop the pork and the log rolling for pet projects. Frankly, any member of Congress who uses that lame excuse ought to resign. If they can't figure it out, they aren't doing their job. Or maybe they only need to turn to the American Society of Civil Engineers 2003 Report Card on U.S.infrastructure (PDF).

They could start with the 190,000 bridges that are unsafe. Or maybe a few thousand dams.

Of course, you can't get a dam into a bathtub.

Comments

[Craig Wieber]

First, I completely agree with your assessment that FEMA is a mess. By nominating his friends instead of qualified individuals to run agencies, he is responsible for how those agencies ultimately perform. The "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job line" just shows how out of touch he was at the beginning of this crisis.

However, I don't agree with the premise that we should suddenly start throwing huge sums of federal money at every local or regional problem. How can we justify spending money from individuals in Oregon or Maine to solve a problem that is localized to the gulf region? When we use federal dollars for truly national uses, i.e. defense or transportation (without the pork), that is justifable because we all benefit from having roads to travel or an army to protect us.

I for one have a very hard time justifying spending billions of federal dollars to rebuild infrastructure that may or may not prevent this same thing from happening in the future, especially with no national benefit. If Lousiania wants to rebuild New Orleans, or the city itself for that manner, it shouldn't be done using federal money.

[Arnold Harris]

It would be both expensive and shortsighted to reconstruct on an as-was basis a city whose residential housing for the past 100 years was largely built some 10-12 feet below sea level, and subsiding about a meter per century, on a site squeezed in between the main channel of the largest river system in the country, a saltwater sealevel lake possibly the size of Rhode Island, and the nearby ocean whose waters are rising as the surface of this planet -- 7/8ths of which comprise these oceans -- as a main after-effect of global warming. That could only be the prescription for an a future north american Atlantis.

The same logic applies to the foolish policy of using flood insurance offered by federal agencies such as FEMA to subsidize construction of vacation homes along oceanic sandbars. Because that is precisely what the Outer Banks of North Carolina are, in geological terms. The atlantic currents and waves form and maintain these sandbars. And they move them. I am told that anyone who has studied this issue understand there is no serious cabability of men or governments to permanently ward off the hydraulic powers of the worlds oceans. It would therefore be better public policy to terminate the government sponsored flood insurance policies, or at least phase them out if that is more politically achievable.

In time, the sandbars will revert to their original and natural function. From my own experience, it is a fine day's drive from Kitty Hawk southward, passing in turn Pamlico and Albemarle sounds on one side, and the great Atlantic on the other, down toward Hatteras. At least until the ocean cuts right through either of the main sandbars. Which recently happened.

Learning to take advantage of what nature offers, and learning to live in peace with better understanding of its limitations, shall yet be the mark of an even greater american commonwealth than the one we have hitherto enjoyed and not infrequently abused.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI