Having lived in New Orleans from 1991-1992 Pre-Katrina, I am very familiar with the region. I do agree with the recent GAO input on FEMA that we may need to re-think how we populate areas of repetitive natural disasters. The particular current situation with the oil spill in the Gulf doesn't  fit into the natural disasters scenario since this disaster was man-made. 

Whether the final bills are paid by BP, Transocean or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (paid by us at the gas pump), there is one thing for certain. I have seen no news story discussing one of the known, last-resort fail safes being immediately tested. That last-resort is a remote switch shut off that has actually been used by other countries and other gas companies, even voluntarily when not mandated by the governing country.

As reported by GAP (Government Accountability Project) at http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/31-2010/534-troubling-details-emerge-about-bps-oil-platform-explosion , politics has played a role in not having this fail safe remote shut off in place for years. This all goes back to who really runs the business of regulating multi-national corporations in this country; it's obvious that the Lobby groups with the deepest pockets do. The only way to prevent this happening again in the very immediate situation is for people to bombard their Congress members in both Houses to mandate the implementation of the remote switch shut off on any wells within the US jurisdictional waters.

The long range solution is also political.  A good example of how legislation gets turned for the worst in favor of big corporations is the Safe Drinking Water Act. Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D), my District representative in the House, was here in Ithaca today at a Chamber of Commerce event. He mentioned how the Safe Drinking Water Act was violated by allowing "Fracking companies" to be exempt from disclosure of the chemicals they use to frack with. The fact is, we know most of the chemicals used; the companies are mostly afraid of disclosure because it would expose their own proprietary mixtures to competing companies and pose an economic disadvantage. The process of fracking itself is too risky here since if the watershed here were seriously contaminated, it would threaten 9 million or so NYC residents drinking water.

The political long-range solution then is to elect Congressional members in both Houses who voluntarily accept no Lobby money from both PACS and individuals in the Oil/Gas, Banking/Financial, Pharma or Insurance industries. If we can get a voting block of these representatives, we will change the way we do things and help prevent catastrophes before they happen in all these sectors. It will at the very least take the profit concerns away from the regulatory decision-making and level the playing field for public safety.