Hastert: "Rebuilding New Orleans doesn't make sense to me"

There's been talk, mostly on the blogosphere, questioning the wisdom of rebuilding a city in such a vulnerable location as New Orleans occupies: A mostly below sea-level town built on soggy delta earth abutting the continent's mightiest river.

Bloggers have brought up the case of Mississippi River towns that were moved to higher ground after the 1993 floods. Valmeyer, IL was one of those towns, but only 900 people lived there.

New Orleans has 500,000 residents.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert met with the Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Editiorial Board yesterday. Below is the article about that meeting:

Lawmakers have to ask themselves if it’s worth sinking possibly billions of federal dollars into rebuilding New Orleans, a low-lying city which would remain a vulnerable hurricane target even after clean up, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Wednesday.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Hastert during an interview with the Daily Herald editorial board. “And it’s a question that certainly we should ask.”

Congress’ most powerful Republican undoubtedly wasn’t the first to think such a thought, but as the man at the head of a chamber charged with approving federal disaster aid legislation, he knows the potentially taboo topic won’t go away.

“First of all your heart goes out to the people, the loss of their homes,” said Hastert of Plano. “But there are some real tough questions to ask about how you go about rebuilding this city.”
Hastert said his office worked nine weeks straight putting together the disaster relief for New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This could take even longer, he said.

“We help replace, we help relieve disaster,” Hastert said. “That is certainly the decision the people of New Orleans are going to make.

“But I think federal insurance and everything goes along with it and we ought to take a second look at it,” Hastert added.

“But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness.”

Update 9:40PM Hastert's comments, as expected, have not gone over well in Louisiana, and he's backed off bit.

From AP:

Hastert later issued a statement saying he was not "advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated."

"My comments about rebuilding the city were intended to reflect my sincere concern with how the city is rebuilt to ensure the future protection of its citizens and not to suggest that this great and historic city should not be rebuilt," the statement said.

UPDATE 10:10PM: The Change of Subject Blog of Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn has a non-scientific poll that shows 79% of the respondents support returning New Orleans to natural wetland status. Free registration to the Trib may be required to visit Eric's blog.