WASHINGTON – One year and $110 billion later, the Bush administration has proved one thing: You can throw money at a problem. Whether it solves anything over the long term is another matter.

At the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, according to USA Today, New Orleans is re-emerging “the old way, in harm’s way, because the city and the state have not yet said they can’t.” USA Today’s Anne Rochell Konigsmark reported that many problems in New Orleans persist because the city has no master plan. The Big Easy is trying to re-create its same old charming, vulnerable self – potentially as vulnerable to another hurricane killer as it was before Katrina.

First: This is not about compassion; it’s about competency – especially at the state and local level. The American people passed the threshold of Katrina compassion long ago. While the politicians pointed fingers, Americans gave millions to private charities. They opened up their homes to displaced fellow citizens, they flocked to the gulf to help those rebuilding. Truckers abandoned their own businesses to haul supplies to the gulf. Companies donated material and money.

And it continues. Church groups organized summer recovery missions. And Americans continue to open up the federal treasury – or should we say, pile more on their children – to the tune of $110 billion so far, $27 billion to rebuild New Orleans alone. While the politicians pointed fingers and the lawbreakers took advantage with fraudulent claims, Americans were Americans – stepping forward to help however they could.

But if the trend outlined in the USA Today report continues – if Big Easy homes and businesses are rebuilt in flood plains just as vulnerable as before – then every taxpayer, every volunteer, every sympathizer has the right to be outraged. Because if New Orleans becomes its same old vulnerable self, that would be far greater incompetence than the government’s initially confused response when the hurricane struck a year ago.

The concerns are not science fiction. As the global warming debate rages, some scientists are predicting that bigger and more devastating hurricanes will threaten coastal communities across the nation. The Constitution says nothing about the right to live in a flood plain protected by fellow taxpayers. The predictions of these big-storm threats ought to be an early-warning sign for states and the federal government to get serious, once and for all, about planning for them. But a year after Katrina, that does not appear to be happening.

Six weeks after the hurricane struck, a post on the blog site Daily Kos declared that “Katrina fatigue” had set in. That was dead wrong. While the political bickering persists, many Americans remain compassionate and concerned. College kids spent spring breaks cleaning and rebuilding. Church missions are still organized. And the federal money still flows.

Days before the Katrina anniversary, President Bush even met with the crusading Rockey Vaccarella, the St. Bernard Parish, La., man who drove here to thank Bush and to remind him that a lot more work needs to be done. Vaccarella, a self-described cup-half-full guy, said he was especially thankful for the FEMA trailers that “gave roofs over people’s heads.”

“We have TV, we have toiletry, we have things that are necessities that we can live upon,” Vaccarella said. “But now, I want to remind the president that the job’s not done, and he knows that.”

Bush, who pushed for an unprecedented relief effort after his administration was criticized for its slow initial response, said that it is “a time to remember that people suffer, and it’s a time to recommit ourselves to helping them.”

Americans have thrown compassion, action and money at the problem. In return, they have a right to expect a safer, sturdier and smarter recovery.