Learning from Katrina
Category: Hurricane Katrina... Nature...
Posted Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 11:08 PM [GMT-6]

The rescue and recovery efforts are still being mobilized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but it's not too early to consider how this disaster should shape future decisions about preparing for the next round. WorldChanging has a provocative post with the premise that foresight means more than imagining the worst and preparing for it.

It means, for example, that the reconstruction of New Orleans and the other devastated Gulf Coast cities has to take into account more than "what if this happens again in the next 50 years?" -type questions. The real question needs to be, "what if this starts happening every decade?" What kinds of changes to building codes would be required if buildings are to regularly withstand 165+ mile per hour winds? What kinds of changes to zoning regulations are needed when flood plains are the hardest-hit areas over and over again? What kinds of changes to building density and construction materials have to happen to allow for better runoff during rain storms that happen with tropical intensity and troubling frequency?

WorldChanging takes a matter-of-fact approach to the subject of climate change. There's not a lot of hackneyed political finger-pointing and arm-waving about global warming. Instead, they offer a matter-of-fact argument that the evidence for climate change -- regardless of origin -- is compelling and the implications are significant enough that we (being the human race) really ought to start figuring out how to deal with it in practical terms.

Katrina was (yet another) wake-up call about the reality that "good enough" often isn't when it comes to a showdown with Mother Nature. And reliance on past actuarial tables for predicting how long we can slide by before another Katrina shows up may just be a sucker's bet that leaves us as broken as the casinos now lining the Gulf Coast.

Note: I'm in no way suggesting that the damage from Katrina could have been or should have been anticipated and prepared for. This is a matter of looking forward, plain and simple.

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