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ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS HERALD |
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HURRICANE POLITICS During Marion Barry’s madcap tenure as mayor of Washington, DC, one of his most memorable public pronouncements came when murder on the streets of the nation’s capital had reached a kind of macabre crescendo. The body count was hovering around two per day (i.e., over seven hundred for the year), and one weekend featured ten murders. That’s not too shabby (depending on your viewpoint) for a city of fewer than 600,000 people. New York City – population 8 million – was then averaging around 2,000 murders a year (about six per day). Seeking to stem the carnage, Mr. Barry appealed to the shootists’ civic pride and “Christmas spirit” by making this appeal on local television: “I want to axe the people doing all this shootin’ to please put your guns away – at least until after the holidays…” Out of loyalty to the politician they had endorsed, the Washington Post delicately ignored the mayor’s statement, but other news organs treated it as the vintage high comedy it was. It has gone down in political lore as one of hizzoner’s signature quotations. Fast-forward to Hurricane Katrina, 2005. Public officials in Louisiana and other hard-hit states have blasted the federal government for its “tardy” response, while explaining why residents have fired on rescue teams (causing some rescuers to decline additional service): “ We have a lot of drug users in the city,” said a New Orleans official. “After several days without their drugs, they’re probably pretty upset…” Long before our time, political commentators noted that people get the political leadership they deserve. This certainly was true in Washington, DC, during those halcyon days when that wild and crazy guy, Marion Barry, was caught smoking crack in a woman’s hotel room. (“I’ll be &*$#@! – bitch set me up…”). The maxim appears doubly true in New Orleans, currently, where “leaders” of a city situated below sea level (and protected only by earthen levees) evidently had no coherent emergency plan in place for the very likely eventuality of a high-category, destructive hurricane. Local officials – undoubtedly fearful that their negligence would be exposed – have denounced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Army, and Mr. Bush (not necessarily in that order) for not getting food, water, medicines, and other supplies to the flooded areas quickly. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has reportedly refused to cooperate with federal officials in relief efforts and has retained control of Louisiana National Guard troops. Partisan Democrats have all but blamed Mr. Bush for the hurricane itself. Some have cited global warming as the probable cause of the numerous hurricanes in recent years – with dark references to Mr. Bush’s failure to adopt the Koyoto Treaty’s protocols. (In other words, these hurricanes might have been prevented but for Mr. Bush’s lack of action on climate change.) Setting aside this silliness over “preventing” hurricanes, there is no doubt that coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana received a fearful blow from hurricane Katrina. Thousands have probably died, and the tri-state region has been wrecked. The Army Corps of Engineers says pumping out the flooded areas will take months. New Orleans – sitting below sea level, with no natural drainage – is a mess. Experts say the city will be non-functional for at least two months. Past years have seen some nasty hurricanes, too. Connie, in 1955, flooded resort areas in eastern Pennsylvania, killing scores of people. Agnes (1972) gave us ten straight days of heavy rain in Washington. A raging torrent roared through Rock Creek Park, destroying most of its bridges and damaging the National Zoo. Agnes was the worst natural disaster ever to strike Pennsylvania. Its 15 inches of rain over the Susquehanna River basin produced the greatest flood since 1784. Last year, four hurricanes hit Florida, leaving its people exhausted from cleanup and repair. I’m not an expert in hurricane damage, but Katrina appears to rank up there with some of our worst-ever storms – evoking the Pacific tsunami damage earlier this year. There are thousands of hurting people, and many lives have been lost. Ordinary Americans – not just the government – have pitched in to help victims with personal assistance. Sometime during the last forty years or so it became the mission of the federal government to furnish aid and relief for victims of natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. Presidents have enjoyed looking statesman-like, standing before microphones gravely pronouncing some area a “disaster”, after a big storm, and promising that federal aid will flow there to help. This is probably reasonable, although there is no Constitutional authority for it. In many ways, only the federal government can marshal the resources and manpower to project large-scale aid to a damaged region. At the very least, agencies of the federal government should work with people at the state and local levels to bring help to hurting people as quickly as possible. It is more difficult to justify the federal “loans” and subsidies that always follow for rebuilding damaged homes and businesses in high-risk areas. Homes built on seacoasts vulnerable to hurricanes come to mind. New Orleans is such a place. Lying below sea level, the city has no natural drainage. Friends who once lived there say streets start to flood even during ordinary rains until powerful pumps are started to suck the water into the storm drains. A storm of Katrina’s magnitude would have overwhelmed this system – particularly after the levees were breached. Having libertarian leanings, I believe people should be free to build their homes and live wherever they wish. The government requires many things of us – bossing us to an intolerable extent that would shock the Founders. So I don’t want bureaucrats telling us where we can or cannot live, unless there is some compelling national interest at stake. But I draw the line at subsidizing this freedom. People can build on vulnerable seacoasts and in the flood-plains of rivers, if they want to, but we shouldn’t have to pay for rebuilding their houses whenever a hurricane blows through or the river floods. Why should the freedom to do something risky entail an expectation of public succor when things go wrong? Is being the insurer of last resort really the proper role of the federal government? And if it is, where does that role stop? If I decide to drive blindfolded, can I expect the government to fix my car and pay for my injuries after I crash? Last week we heard a radio interview with a lady who had lived on the Gulf Coast for three years. “I’m sick of the storms,” she said – her tone implicitly asking why someone doesn’t do something. My wife and I looked at each other and said, “Live somewhere else!” I grieve for all who have been hurt or suffered damage from the storm. As private citizens are moved within themselves, they will send food and help to the needy. But handing out tax dollars for rebuilding in places where disaster will probably happen again is not good stewardship of the public purse. There are limits to everything. We really need to designate some coastal areas “high risk” and announce that federal monies will no longer be lent (or given) for rebuilding after storm damage there. Call me hard-hearted, but enough is enough.
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