Flawed levees symbolize flawed policies

In today's Washington Post (Investigators Link Levee Failures to Design Flaws), Joby Warrick and Michael Grunwald examine why three New Orleans levees collapsed within a 15-hour period in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Preliminary investigation findings, they report, suggest design flaws were a key factor in the levee failures, resulting in flooding that submerged 100,000 homes and caused most of the 1,000 deaths in Lousiana. Surprisingly, the hurricane is now believed to be have been no more than a Category 3 storm by the time it blew through New Orleans - a blow the levees should have withstood.

Ultimately, the people of Lousiana will have to make some hard decisions: whether to rebuild the city as it was, using engineered structures to fight a hostile and ever-changing environment; or to create a very different city, compatible with natural processes. The rest of the nation has a stake, also, in the decision making. The cost of Katrina has reached into the pockets of taxpayers far from Jackson Square, and there will be many storms to come.

Unless Americans are willing to accommodate repeated evacuations, relocations and reconstructions of coastal cities, new national and state policies are needed for land use in hurricane-prone areas. Otherwise, cities like New Orleans will effectively become "cities on wheels," constantly on the move, to escape the latest storm.

The economic, health and psychological impacts of multiple disasters argue for a paradigm change in land use and urban planning. And, while we're at it, why not take a hard look at regions prone to earthquakes and other disasters? The cost of Katrina is only a taste of the potential cost in dollars and lives of a major earthquake in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

As more Americans make their homes in hazardous locales, the odds increase that any one of us could be the next disaster casualty. With that in mind, a beachfront property may become much more appealing as a National Seashore than as a private - and temporary - residence.