Managing risk
We need an honest appraisal as to what we can do better in the future to safeguard us
By Tony Staley
Compass Editor
Hurricane Katrina can teach us some valuable lessons.
Based on what's known now, much of the damage could have been avoided had different choices been made over the years.
First, building along the Gulf shore is risky. This was not the Gulf shore's first hurricane and it certainly won't be the last. As Jesus said, a house built on sand will not stand (Mt 7:26-27).
Second, New Orleans will need a stronger, more comprehensive system of sea defenses to survive, especially since there is no way to stop the city from sinking about one meter every 100 years.
New Orleans needs something similar to the system that protects a third or more of The Netherlands against storms that happen once every 10,000 years (Washington Post, 9/8/05). Most U.S. systems will withstand floods that occur every 30-100 years.
The Dutch strengthened their sea defenses in a $3 billion, 30-year program after a flood in 1953 - that strongly parallels the flooding in New Orleans. The system in The Netherlands includes a network of dikes, man-made islands and even a 1½-mile series of gates that control the amount of water from the North Sea that enters and leaves. Now the Dutch are considering upgrading their protective system because of fears of rising waters caused by global warming, the Post reported.
Additional flood protection had been sought for more than 40 years for New Orleans, but it was repeatedly rejected as a pork barrel project. It will now cost U.S. taxpayers several times that in federal disaster aid to rebuild New Orleans.
In the end, it's all about risk management, choices and being responsible for our choices. For example, a corporation makes a car with an unsafe gas tank or a drug with lethal side
effects for some. Both stay on the market because it will cost more to fix the gas tank or to warn doctors and patients than it will to pay off the families of those the products kill.
We all make risk management decisions each day - for example, speeding, running a red light, choosing insurance policies. Often, we get off OK. But sometimes a traffic ticket,
accident or inadequate coverage cost us dearly. Some choices can even affect our eternal destiny. In the end, we each are ultimately responsible for our actions.
Who was responsible for the tragic consequences of Hurricane Katrina? We need answers. To get them, Congress needs to set up an independent commission to ensure fairness and credibility. But not just to assign blame: both political parties, several presidents, state, local and federal officials all made mistakes.
Mainly, we need to know how best to respond to future emergencies - caused either by nature or terrorists. As former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told CNN, "If we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?"
But we also need to properly manage the risk as the Dutch did, rather than searching in vain at the last minute for a thumb to stick in the dike.
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