This week, the House stood in recess for the summer district work period until reconvening today to pass emergency relief funding to address the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina: Tragedy and Warning

As the nation has viewed scenes of the devastation in the Gulf States wrought by Hurricane Katrina, our hearts have gone out to the millions of our countrymen whose lives and livelihoods have literally been washed away. Experts already estimate that this natural disaster will be the costliest in U.S. history. Beyond the initial destruction caused by the torrential storm, gale-force wind, and rising flood waters, many communities will still have to grapple with the logistical problems related to supplying food, water, medicine, power, and shelter to so many displaced people for weeks to come. Moreover, in New Orleans particularly, the flooding caused by levee breaks will lead to the indiscriminant spread of garbage and sewage. The public health ramifications of these conditions may continue to wreak havoc well after the flood waters have subsided. In every sense of the word, Katrina has been a tragedy. This is a time for the rest of America to contribute such things as money, blood, time, and prayer to aid in the rescue and recovery efforts.

The plight of New Orleans also provides a dire warning to another major U.S. river city – Sacramento. Sacramento, like New Orleans, is protected from flooding during major storms by a system of levees. Situated at the confluence of the Sacramento River and American River systems, California’s state capital is particularly vulnerable to disaster when warm spring rains quickly melt the winter snow pack in the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains. Both in 1986 and 1997, the region narrowly missed the sort of catastrophic flooding now seen in New Orleans only because the weather changed at the last moment. However, unlike New Orleans, Sacramento’s flood protection system is not designed to withstand a 250-year flood (a flood of the magnitude that has a 1-in-250 chance of occurring in any given year). The investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for levee improvements is just now bringing Sacramento up to 100-year protection, only a fraction of the level of protection enjoyed by other major river cities in the country. After decades of studying alternatives, the only project that would provide Sacramento with sufficient protection remains a new dam on the American River at Auburn. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Auburn Dam will be constructed. I just hope, for Northern California’s sake, that it happens before boats are required to evacuate Sacramento’s City Hall and the Arco Arena is used to house thousands of displaced residents.

Here we go Again

Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, last week, liberal columnist Paul Krugman resurrected the old 2000 Florida Election myth when he wrote, “Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida’s ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore.” Mr. Krugman must have conveniently forgotten that on November 12, 2001, his own New York Times reported: “Even under the strategy that Mr. Gore pursued at the beginning of the Florida standoff — filing suit to force hand recounts in four predominantly Democratic counties — Mr. Bush would have kept his lead, according to the ballot review conducted for a consortium of news organizations…The media consortium included The Times ...”

Hawaiian Secession?

There is now a bill in Congress that would allow Native Hawaiians to “exercise their right to self-determination by selecting another form of government, including free association or total independence.” On this, Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has commented, “The bill is the triumph of the politics of racial identity and ethnic pleading over the American creed. It’s the logical conclusion to multiculturalism run amok — the balkanization of America. And it sets a very troubling precedent for further ethnic separatism.” Quoted in National Review Online, August 30, 2005.