by The Times-Picaune editorial staff
Monday August 04, 2008, 3:43 AM

The Women of the Storm asked the Democratic National Committee to consider lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and their aftermath in drawing up the party's platform, and that's a message that needs to be heard in this presidential election year.

The group made an eloquent case, not only for New Orleans but the entire nation. "No place can claim immunity, " founder Anne Milling told the committee Friday. "Every American community and city is vulnerable, as recent floods in the Midwest and fires and earthquakes in California have reminded us."

The Women of the Storm urged Democrats to support a comprehensive disaster plan that includes giving FEMA direct access to the White House and employees who are disaster-response professionals.

The group also stressed the urgency of rebuilding the nation's deteriorating roads, bridges and levees, as well as imperiled wetlands, "our most critical and most threatened national assets."

Those issues deserve to be front and center as the nation chooses its next president.