The red-tape octopus

There is yet another flap in New Orleans as the result of Hurricane Katrina. When the 2005 storm swept through the city, the Audubon Nature Institute's Aquarium of the Americas near the French Quarter was spared from serious wind damage and flooding. But power outages disrupted the equipment used to maintain fish habitat, and the aquarium lost many of the creatures that had been on display.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was prepared to spend more than $600,000 to reimburse the aquarium for replacing the fish -- until it found out the aquarium was able to get nearly 1,700 specimens by using hooks and nets at a cost of under $100,000. The snag, from FEMA's point of view, was that the fish should have been purchased from commercial suppliers. That's what federal law requires, FEMA said.

The absurdity of all this has many layers. Why would six times more than it cost be spent to replace the fish? Why so much red tape? Why would an aquarium expect to get money from a federal agency whose mission is to provide emergency assistance when calamity strikes?

Most reasonable taxpayers, who underwrite FEMA's largesse, would expect aid to go to suffering humans and their habitat. With many New Orleans neighborhoods little better off today than they were two years ago, it appears the problem at FEMA is not red tape alone. Someone should take a look at priorities.