Create a national fund for national emergencies

There are natural disasters, and there are national disasters. Hurricane Katrina is a natural national disaster, and Congress should acknowledge the distinction.

After Hurricane Andrew struck Miami-Dade County in 1992, Florida created the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Insurance companies, which pay into the fund, can tap it when their claims from a storm exceed a certain amount. The idea is to guard against insurers going bankrupt, as 10 did after Andrew, and thus keep the private market as competitive as possible while the effects of a major hurricane sort themselves out. The state-run fund has not only assets but the power to issue bonds. This year, the Legislature made it easier to use the fund when multiple storms strike the state in one season.

For more than a decade, this newspaper has urged Congress to do the same thing on the federal level and include all manner of perils. It is unrealistic, for example, to think that the California insurance system alone could cover losses if a major earthquake struck downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco. It is unrealistic to think that the Louisiana insurance system and the federal flood program can cover losses in New Orleans if water in the city keeps rising. It is unrealistic to think that the Washington state insurance system could cover losses if a tsunami rolled into Seattle.

Writing in The Post six years ago, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, noted that the United States is one of just a few industrialized countries that do not allow insurers "to plan ahead for catastrophic disasters -- whether they are hurricanes in the East or mega-earthquakes on the West Coast." Florida's senior senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, would be a perfect advocate for such legislation since he once served as Florida's insurance commissioner.

Not surprisingly, however, members of Congress from landlocked states don't like the idea of their companies -- meaning their constituents and policyholders -- paying into a fund that might help only a few states. One response is that after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism has joined the list of perils. Would the Nebraska insurance system realistically be able to handle all losses from a radioactive attack on Omaha?

Another response is that geography and politics create all manner of imbalances in the federal government. Floridians might not be happy that the Defense Department will keep wasting money by housing at Ellsworth Air Force in South Dakota B-1 bombers that could be based in Texas. But Ellsworth is that state's second-largest employer, and South Dakota's congressional delegation fought successfully to keep it open. How much did it cost Florida when Sen. Robert Byrd made sure that the FBI and other agencies put information-gathering facilities in West Virginia to modernize that state's economy?

Katrina has left Mississippi and Louisiana devastated, and not just along the coast. Alabama and Florida took hits. There may be extensive damage to the north before the storm has churned itself out. It could be the country's costliest disaster, and preparing for the next one is a national priority.