Sen. Rick Santorum said in a weekend interview that people who do not heed evacuation warnings in the future may need to be penalized. But the Pennsylvania Republican yesterday clarified his remarks, saying he did not mean people who lack cars or other resources.

His remarks were sharply criticized by the campaign of Democrat Bob Casey Jr., who is seeking to unseat Santorum, the No. 3 GOP leader in the Senate. "At face value [Santorum's comments] show an incredible amount of insensitivity to the Gulf Coast," said Jay Reiff, Casey's campaign manager. "What exactly does Senator Santorum mean by imposing penalties on people who often times had no transportation and no place to go?"

In a weekend interview with Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV about the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Santorum said: "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."

Last night on WTAE, Santorum clarified his comments: "Obviously, most of the people here in this case, an overwhelming majority of people, just literally couldn't have gotten out on their own," he said. "Many didn't have cars. ... And that really was a failure on the part of local officials in not making transportation available to get people out."

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Dan Ronayne responded for Santorum's office, saying Casey's campaign took the senator's comments out of context.

"The senator was saying if people can get out of the way of a hurricane, they should," Ronayne said. "Of course, he wasn't referring to people who do not have the resources or the means to get out of the way of the hurricane."

Casey, Pennsylvania's current state treasurer and son of a former governor, announced early this year that he would challenge Santorum in 2006, setting up a contest expected to be one of the most bitter in the next federal elections.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and former first lady Barbara Bush also have drawn criticism for their comments.

After a tour of the Houston Astrodome in Texas earlier this week, where thousands of hurricane victims are now being housed, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush and the current president's mother said in a National Public Radio interview: "So many of the people here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

And last week, Hastert told the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights, Ill., that since New Orleans is located below sea level, he wasn't sure whether it should be rebuilt.

Hastert later issued a statement saying: "My comments about rebuilding the city were intended to reflect my sincere concern with how the city is rebuilt to ensure the future protection of its citizens and not to suggest that this great historic city should not be rebuilt."