None of this is to say that things might not have been done otherwise, much less that they should continue as before. Following Holland's catastrophic 1953 flood in which 1,800 people perished and 100,000 were left homeless, the country embarked on a crash program to build new dams and flood barriers--known as the Delta Works--that took more than a decade to complete. That's a European success story we can actually learn from as we consider how best to protect our own Bayou netherlands.
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The Bush Administration would also be well-advised to remove all federal impediments to a speedy reconstruction effort. One such impediment is the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act, which requires the government to pay prevailing local wages in federal construction projects. The act effectively excludes non-union workers and contractors from reconstruction projects while adding billions in costs.
Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon both suspended Davis-Bacon during previous emergencies, as did the current President's father in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. The government could also offer incentives and bonuses to contractors who complete projects on or ahead of schedule, as former California Governor Pete Wilson did following the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
