Magnitude of Katrina disaster demands help

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2006

Once again, USA TODAY features "blame the victims" letters and more excuses as to why our federal government and President Bush shouldn't have to do anything to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina ("Reliance on government stalls rebuilding"; "Don't rebuild New Orleans," Wednesday).

Anyone who compares Hurricane Katrina's disaster to the 1900 hurricane in Galveston, Texas, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or the 1871 Chicago fire doesn't understand that more than 90,000 square miles were destroyed, millions of families stripped of all resources, hundreds of thousands of children left without schools, and more than 400,000 people displaced because a federal levee system failed to meet its own standards.

If New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt because of its geographic...