OK, so you've got you some anthrax spores and some avian flu virus and some samples of some other really mean diseases. You want to keep 'em locked away tightly so they don't get out and make lots of people really sick.

Where's the best place to put 'em?

Why, on an island in the Gulf of Mexico that just got wiped out by a hurricane, of course!

The same one where the nation's deadliest natural disaster occurred!

The one where thousands of people are, right now, stranded with no running water, no electricity, no food, no toilets, no air conditioning in the heat and humidity, many with no shelter. The one where the tiger is running loose and a lion is living in an abandoned church building. Yeah, that one!

The devastation on Galveston Island caused by Hurricane Ike has reopened the issue of whether it was such a bright idea to put a $175 million federal biodefense laboratory there, the Dallas Morning News reports.

From reporter Emily Ramshaw:

Biosafety experts at the University of Texas Medical Branch say the $175 million Galveston National Lab and their other high-security research labs are sturdy enough to withstand almost any natural disaster. They note that Ike, which washed away whole sections of Galveston, left the university's biodefense research facilities completely intact.

But opponents of the new lab, which will research some of the world's most dangerous diseases, say housing it in a major hurricane zone is just asking for accidents. Biological agents stored at the lab, which is less than a mile from the sea wall, could leak out after damaging winds or flooding, they say – or could be looted by rioters in post-disaster mayhem.

And of course, we all know what experts the federal government are when it comes to protecting structures from hurricanes -- after all, those levees in New Orleans did just fine after Katrina. (What difference does a few feet of floodwater make?)

Well, heck, if it's that safe in Galveston, maybe some powerful person in Texas' Congressional delegation can get Uncle Sam to move all the gold in Fort Knox down to Galveston, too. Nevermind the debate over whether the nation's nuclear waste should go to Yucca Mountain in Nevada -- bring it to Galveston! It'll be safe! And the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- the National Archives doesn't need them anymore. Washington is so drab. Bring them down to Galveston and let the flip-flop-clad tourists come see them while still dripping wet. No risk involved. (Don't forget: Today is Constitution Day.)

Poster kosmicjack over at the Above Top Secret blog, for one, says he'd like to know "who is responsible for this ill-conceived boondoggle."

But whether or not Galveston's the right place for a national biodefense lab may be kind of moot now -- it's not yet open and doesn't house any dangerous germs, but it sounds like it's pretty much built already.

Come next major hurricane, maybe the tiger will get the anthrax.

(Photo at top left of unnamed man in biohazard suit from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.)

So, what do you think about a biohazard lab being on Galveston Island? And who do you think managed to get it built there? Tell us. Leave a comment below, or e-mail me at jennifer@texaswatchdog.