The issue: We’ve learned something since Katrina, but bickering over paying for the recovery suggests we’re not quite there yet

From the safety of high ground and hindsight, the critics of government are now asserting that it overreacted to Hurricane Irene in ordering mass evacuations, road closures and the shutdown of New York City’s transportation system.

AND AS STORMS GO, Irene did not provide the big storm surges and weather theatrics so beloved of television; the reporter being blown around the beach has become a cliché.

One British journalist wrote dismissively: “Irene became a big story because it was where the media lived.” Apparently, only the loss of Lower Manhattan would have justified more extensive coverage.

However, Irene is not over, as the people of northern New Jersey, Vermont and upstate New York will attest. Hurricanes do some of their most destructive and lethal work inland, after the TV crews on the beach have packed up and returned to the studio.

As of midday Thursday, Irene had killed 46 people in 13 states, according to The Associated Press, and recovery crews are still inspecting mounds of debris piled up by hurricane-caused floods.

With the costs still being totaled, Irene caused an estimated $7.2 billion to $13 billion in damage in eight states; even that lower figure would be a modern record for an Atlantic Coast hurricane. For those who believe there is something unnatural going on in our weather patterns, consider: Irene was a record 10th billion-dollar U.S. weather disaster this year. And we still have four months to go.

NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Bev Perdue said more than 1,100 homes were destroyed in her state. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that, in his state, the storm wrecked 600 homes, flooded six towns and damaged 22 bridges and 150 major highways.

In New Jersey, the flooding was still going on, with the Passaic River inundating Paterson, the state’s largest city. There was plenty of ruined property for President Barack Obama to survey when he visited there Sunday.

Vermont has had its worst flooding since 1927, with homes, roads, bridges and even entire villages damaged or destroyed. And this was when Irene had been downgraded from a hurricane to just a tropical storm.

But the people took the warnings to heart — and, yes, it was bad, but it could have been so much worse. Government may have acted out of an abundance of caution, but it did not overreact. Mother still knows best: Better safe than sorry.

WE ALREADY KNOW what you get when federal, state and local officials dither, bicker and stall around in indecision — you get a Hurricane Katrina aftermath of more than 1,800 dead and a great American city flooded.

This past Monday was the sixth anniversary of Katrina, so maybe we’ve learned something since. The political bickering in Congress over paying for the recovery, however, suggests we’re not quite there yet.

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