Letters

Greater Good

"The Buzz" in your Oct. 1 issue highlighted the "disaster waiting to happen" predictions cited in "Drowning New Orleans" by Mark Fischetti in 2001.

Natural and man-made disasters will continue to occur. Our government should not be responsible for restoring conditions to their previous proven vulnerabilities. This should hold for not subsidizing repeated flood plain, coastal erosion, wildfire and violent weather damage. Our self-inflicted pain comes from denying that there might be a better alternative to rote replacement efforts. If others wish to expend their own resources at true cost, they should not come to Uncle Sam when the predictable occurs.

Government and taxpayers, along with commercial and private entities, should support repairing and replacing lost capabilities needed for the greater weal. We should help those affected with compassion. But the aid for New Orleans should not be in a form valid only to re-create the same conditions that led to the tragedy.

As an aside, Fischetti's article credits New Orleans as "the home of Mardi Gras." That honor goes to Mobile, Ala., where Mardi Gras is still celebrated, albeit with more restraint than it is in the Big Easy.

Agree to Disagree

I was surprised when I read two articles in the Oct. 1 issue that brought me to 180-degree conclusions.

"Baghdad's Lessons for New Orleans" struck me as some pretty bad advice. Stan Soloway agonizes over the politically charged nature of the acquisition process in Iraq and the potential for this to be duplicated in New Orleans. He does not come to any conclusion on this point, although it is obvious from my perspective: put career government employees in charge. The whole point of a nonpatronage government is to have employees who are not afraid to make tough decisions and who can't be fired for political reasons.

Mr. Soloway also concludes that the government needs to augment its acquisition workforce with contractors. Having been in Iraq and observed contractors who were unfamiliar with the Federal Acquisition Regulation attempting to write contracts, I fail to understand how this would improve contract management. It is great to have contractors assist with definable tasks such as preparing estimates or doing market surveys, but this is already being done. I can only assume that Mr. Soloway is arguing for augmenting the workforce to make inherently governmental decisions such as selection of contractors, negotiating contracts and preparing contract language. Blurring the lines in this manner would reduce accountability and create confusion.

"Isaac's Legacy" also confounds me. The history of Isaac Cline was fascinating and very appropriate. Mr. Cline, however, forecasted one of his disasters two weeks ahead of the storm. With Hurricane Katrina, the National Weather Service firmed up its forecast the day before-too late to evacuate the city. The forecast should have been made by Thursday night or Friday morning, with a clear recommendation to evacuate the coastline and city made by Friday afternoon. Instead, NWS timidly waited until it was certain of its forecast before upgrading predictions to a Category 5. On Thursday I recall predictions of no more than a Category 3. How many people in Mississippi said they did not think this was going to be worse than Hurricane Camille?