Living dangerously October 3, 2005 THE EXTREMES of nature can seem almost biblical now, as people flee the firestorms in the West and face the cleanup after hurricane floods in the South. The devastation on two coasts is horrific, and most Americans can empathize with the fear and despair of human beings forced to evacuate their homes, not knowing what they will find when they return. More than 17,000 acres burned last week in the canyons and hills north and east of Los Angeles. The exodus down mountain roads, with people packing pets and belongings in loaded cars, was an eerie parched replay of the Katrina and Rita escapes -- though without the death toll and heavy destruction of property. But even as 3,000 firefighters worked to keep the blazes away from homes and businesses, the smoke settled into just about everything, and buildings and people were always at the mercy of a fickle wind. In the Gulf states the panic has ratcheted down to a simmering worry about a cleanup that could take years. Not only have wind and water swept away neighborhoods, towns, and lives, but pollution is threatening fishing, farming, protected lands, and wildlife. Louisiana alone has more than 8 million gallons of oil polluting its ecosystem. That plus sewage and chemicals from household products are brewing a dangerous stew that may make some places uninhabitable. As Americans look to the future and help one another get through what are termed ''natural" disasters, they also should look at their own complicity. Federal and local government officials, engineers, scientists, and residents knew for decades that New Orleans was vulnerable to hurricanes. No matter how many reports documented the weakness of the levee system, people didn't quite believe that a monster storm would materialize. People rarely accept the precariousness of their perch on the planet and often assume that a disaster will happen somewhere else. California's Santa Ana winds blow out of the desert every fall, making vegetation dangerously dry and a potential conflagration with the smallest spark. The winds pick up speed in narrow canyons, driving walls of fire toward the mountain homes so treasured for their isolation and beauty. And yet new homes are always being built. The blindness is evident on the East Coast, too, where eroding cliffs foretell the inevitability of Cape Cod mansions being washed into the Atlantic. But danger seems to be part of the romance of living near the sea. The fires and floods in the news should focus people on safe harbors, and make them wiser about ignoring what can swallow them whole. --------------------------------------- $40b plan to protect La. sparks a dispute By David Pace, Associated Press | October 3, 2005 WASHINGTON -- A $40 billion plan to protect the Louisiana coast has ignited a battle over how best to prevent a repeat of this year's double flooding of New Orleans. Endorsed by the state's congressional delegation, the proposal would create a nine-member independent commission that would give Louisiana a large say in how the federal money is spent. The huge sums involved and the measure's plan to waive federal environmental laws underscore the dramatic steps Louisiana lawmakers say are needed to help the state recover from one of the country's worst natural disasters. The commission -- with at least five members from Louisiana -- would have the final say over Army Corps of Engineers projects to protect New Orleans from the most potent damaging hurricane, known as Category 5, and to restore the coastline, control flooding, and improve navigation. Normal congressional processes for authorizing projects and spending money would be bypassed entirely under the proposal. Environmental laws would be waived once the commission signs off on the work plan, which the corps would have to develop in just six months. Such an unprecedented transfer of power and money from Washington to a state usually would stand little chance of winning federal approval. Louisiana lawmakers, though, are hoping the catastrophic drubbing from hurricanes Katrina and Rita will force Congress and the White House to take a serious look at the proposal. It has been introduced as part of a broader reconstruction bill. ''The whole purpose is to give this a sense of urgency," said Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana. ''We need to break out of the bureaucratic mentality where everything is studied to death." Police reported few problems as tens of thousands of residents entered New Orleans on Saturday. Electricity had been restored to about 28 percent of the city and about 98 percent of Jefferson Parish, said a spokeswoman for Entergy Corp. As of Friday, the state Health Department reported 932 deaths in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi's death toll was 221. While there is support for a new approach to hurricane protection, environmentalists contend that the proposal waives environmental studies and excludes existing projects for review. Taxpayer advocates are up in arms over the proposed $40 billion cost -- 10 times the corps' current annual budget -- for a single state. Louisiana lawmakers want the money upfront to pay for the plan the corps would develop in six months, even though it would take years, perhaps decades, to build it all. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said that the proposal was ''just a suggestion" and that she never intended to waive environmental laws. What is needed, she said, is a way to streamline the process so hurricane protection work can be done quickly.