Natural Disaster?

As I write, George W. Bush is speaking, and he gave emphasis as he said the words "natural disaster."  His speech consists of listing all the stuff he is throwing at the flooded and mangled cities, he gives emphasis to word "assets."  He tells the nation it is a priority to repair the infrastructure, and rebuild the communities affected.  He thanks a lot of people for helping out.  He tells us it important to send cash.  He does not talk about a change of policy, apparently we are going to rebuild the status quo ante.

Calling this crisis a natural disaster implies that the horror of destruction we are experiencing in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida is the result of an uncontrollable act of nature.  Accepting this construction allows our political leaders, and corporate leaders to return to business as usual.  It also allows us to shrug our shoulders and imagine ourselves as powerless, and without responsibility, after all the storm was an "act of God."

Hurricanes happen!  There are four or five in a quiet year, and more than ten in an active season.  Before there was a homo sapiens, hurricanes built up in the warm seas and came ashore with high winds, storm surge, and rain.  Before the European conquest, the Gulf Coast had evolved to absorb more than its share of hurricanes, and it renewed itself in the process. 

This catastrophe is a result of how a particular human society has organized its industries, organized its economy, and built its cities and residential structures.  If U.S. society respected "the interdependent web of all existence of which we were a part" would we build structures on the banks of rivers that flood, on beaches and barrier islands, on major earthquake fault lines, and below a damned up lake?  How do we take account of our environment when we build, and rebuild where nature will continue to be natural.