Natural Calamities Need a National Response . . . : Disaster aid: Hurricane Opal showed how much we need an over-reaching federal commitment to the states.

Carl Hiaasen’s latest novel, “Stormy Weather,” weaves a hilarious tale of post-hurricane woes. Roofers descend like locusts. Zoo monkeys run through the city.

The raw power of nature’s swirling subtropical storms has long stirred man’s imagination. In the aftermath of Hurricane Opal, I suggest another chapter for a book of disaster foibles.

Unlike Hiaasen’s work, it would be somber and wonkish.

The Republican Congress is about to block-grant everything it can. Today’s theme in Washington is “punt to the states.” Turn welfare into a block grant; send states smaller checks and let them handle the money for indigent children. Ditto for food stamps and Medicaid.

As a former governor, I favor state flexibility and chafe at Washington’s Big Brother attitude. But I have a storm warning: Block grants and acts of God don’t mix.

Ironically, the mantra of block grants is “state flexibility.” But after major calamities, it will be difficult or impossible for states to be “flexible” when they’re wearing block grant straitjackets that can’t adapt to unexpected needs.

In 1992, the country’s most damaging storm in this century, Hurricane Andrew, hit the Miami area. If we learned anything from Andrew, it is this: Law-abiding, taxpaying, red-blooded Americans who had never sought public help before had nowhere else to go when they found their homes and lives in shambles.

Red Cross provides truckloads of help, and so does the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But their reach is limited.

Consider this: More than 200,000 people received emergency food stamps in the weeks following Hurricane Andrew, and tens of thousands of small businesses and homeowners turned to the federal government for assistance.

We don’t yet know the full extent of human disruption caused by Hurricane Opal, but we know it is major. Thousands of homes and businesses were without electricity, and losses are estimated to exceed $1 billion.

Since the founding of the nation, we have understood that major challenges require a national response. That principle has helped bind us as a diverse collection of states.

If a hurricane hits Charleston, the response transcends the borders of South Carolina.

If an earthquake flattens part of San Francisco, the nation responds. One adverse effect of a natural disaster might be multiple human injuries. But if we convert Medicaid to a block grant, that form of the federal safety net can no longer respond to such disasters.

I toured hurricane-ravaged northwest Florida and marveled at the partnership between states, the federal government and private groups like the Red Cross and churches.

I remember with awe how the nation responded to the homeless and hurt after Hurricane Andrew.

These storms, including the latest one, should cause us to ponder the future. If we’re going to block-grant health and human services to the states, Washington must ensure a reasonable safety net to assist states after unforeseen emergencies. Otherwise, America could find itself pulling apart at the very times it should pull together.

Next year, a community with block grants that is hit with a natural disaster knockout punch would have no federal “trigger” to access funds until the state’s jobless rate reached 6.5%.

The $1-billion nationwide contingency fund is inadequate, and even that could be accessed only after an economic downturn. That must change. There must be an American consensus, in advance of catastrophe, that all 50 states have a shared obligation to assist one another during times of disaster. Otherwise, the United States could become the Divided States.

Our national pledge declares us to be an “indivisible” people. We must ensure that when one part of our nation suffers a natural or economic disaster, it isn’t isolated from the help of the rest of the nation.

That is Opal’s warning.