During the human history, natural disasters were seen as fury acts of gods. For this cause humans didn’t seek to understand and attenuate the force of natural disasters. Even when Benjamin Franklin invented in 1752 the lightning rod, preachers objected to his great idea of using it just because in their eyes the “rod of iron" was in competition with the Holy Cross.



Even if in the 20th century most people saw natural disasters as just that, some calamities were seen as local problems, not national problems. We know that during the great flood of the Mississippi River, in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge refused to visit the affected area by those natural disasters and even refused an offer from NBC Radio to broadcast a national appeal for charity aid.

It is the American tradition of decentralized local and state control that is being re-evaluated. Even if issues of economic development and welfare reform are solved easier by local mayors or governors such natural disasters like Katrina hurricane need centralization.

If local authorities can’t be trusted to elaborate efficient evacuation plans in case of natural disasters, then, that task should be given to the national authorities.

The principal role in the war against natural disasters is the role of the army. In my opinion the U.S. Department of Defense should have clear orders: Defend the U.S in every case (especially in natural disasters cases).

What about that Latinate law, Posse Comitatus Act? It dates to 1878 when southern white people were using KKK-type violence to put in a brutal post-slavery Jim Crow regime in Dixie. The only obstacle was some federal troops left over from the Civil War, that were ordered later out by a Southern Congressmen law. So this is not a principle worth defending or venerating. Problems with this act emerged long before such natural disasters like Katrina, when, on 9/11 military jets and anti-aircraft missiles sat quietly as an airplane crashed intro the Pentagon nearly an hour after the first attack at WTC.

Rules need to be changed further so our army can save more lives affected by natural disasters or terrorist attacks.