All the world is wondering how New Orleans could have been so willfully vulnerable. How is it that a city is built in the bowl of a drainage basin? How do developers get away with putting people and property in harm's way? How do people live under the threat of disaster?

Last week, while all this wondering was going along, the state gave approval for a housing development to be built in Kewalo.

Want to see a map of the property? Turn to page 69 in the phone book. See the shaded-in area? The part that says "tsunami evacuation area?" Right there.

Tsunami, hurricane — same difference. Storm surge is storm surge, and when whatever it is comes churning up from the ocean, the place you don't want to be is that shaded area on the map.

The only questions that surfaced at the public hearing before the Hawai'i Community Development Authority last Wednesday were about how the development will affect traffic and surfers and public access to the shoreline. Sure, those are important quality-of-life questions, but certainly not life-and-death issues. You have to be alive first before you have the luxury of worrying about the quality of your existence.

Haven't the voting members of the Hawai'i Community Development Authority turned on the TV in the past two weeks?

Granted, they're only following their mission, which, as set up by the state, is to find ways to redevelop Kaka'ako, including designating areas for housing. The group is not tasked with putting public safety, or for that matter, ecology, first. "Development" is its middle name.

Four developers are now competing for the opportunity to build houses in the danger zone. No doubt, well-heeled investors will compete for the opportunity to buy homes there, as well.

So how about this? The winning developer has to agree to provide a private rescue and relief team for the property so that public emergency crews can concentrate their efforts on saving the homeless people at Ala Moana Beach Park or the tourists in Waikiki. All that is built in the zone, too, and digging those folks out of sand and rubble will be work enough.

Everyone who buys property in the Kewalo waterfront area must carry enough storm insurance to save themselves and all their stuff if and when the big one hits. If they are willing to put their lives, their livelihood and their property in harm's way knowing what we know and seeing what we've seen, don't come crying to us if the worst should happen and there's a fishing boat in your living room and no roof over your Tommy Bahama furniture.

You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't go swimming with a bloody leg, you don't hike without a cell phone and you don't build houses in tsunami zones.

The answer to all the wondering is clear: the potential for profit breeds willful disregard.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.