Editorial: Asking the wrong questions

Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005 | 8:04 a.m.

Three months ago President Bush stood in front of New Orleans' trademark St. Louis Cathedral and promised to rebuild "better and higher" and to confront poverty "with bold action." But the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina remains in ruins, and the president's promises echo in oblivion.

With an estimated $100 billion in damage in this and other Gulf of Mexico coastal communities, and hundreds of thousands of former New Orleans residents finding permanent homes in other cities, the question idling in the back of a growing number of minds is: Should we rebuild New Orleans?

It is the wrong question and every bit as useless to ask as it would be to question whether people should live along Florida's coastline or in the tornado alleys of the South and Midwest or build their sprawling cities along earthquake fault lines in California, Utah and Nevada.

The prospect of "the big one" looms for all regions, whether the crushing blow is delivered by a tornado's fury, a hurricane's tidal swell or an earthquake's tremble.

We learn what we can from nature and rebuild our communities to be better and stronger. We don't simply shrug and walk away, leaving our neighbors to wallow and wither in the destruction.

The levees around New Orleans absolutely should not be rebuilt in the manner in which they were previously constructed. They should be better, stronger and worthy of withstanding a Category 5 storm -- a project expected to top $32 billion. But that's barely a third of the $95 billion in tax cuts the House approved just last week.

A lot of what happened before Hurricane Katrina hit shouldn't have happened. Funding for updating and improving the levees shouldn't have been cut or postponed. Dredging of the Mississippi River shipping channels and offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico shouldn't have been allowed to erode coastal wetlands, rendering them useless in providing the storm surge protection they offered 40 or 50 years ago.

Most of what happened afterward shouldn't have happened either. FEMA's sluggish response was exacerbated by Bush's empty promises and Republicans' proposed budget plans that called for tax cuts for the rich and cuts to welfare, food stamps and other programs that help us confront poverty.

President Bush in his September speech in famed Jackson Square said, "We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better." Well, we are still waiting to hear how the local, state and federal officials plan to make that happen.

But the question of whether to rebuild New Orleans is the wrong one to ask. What we should be asking is how fast and well we can rebuild it, so that we can bring New Orleans' residents back home.