August 31, 2005
Can New Orleans Really Recover? What History Says Posted by Frederick E. Allen at 12:00 PM EST History answers with an emphatic yes. It illustrates its answer with the stories of three American cities that have been destroyed by the violent forces of nature in the last century and a half. The first was Chicago. The famous fire that started there on the evening of October 8, 1871, and burned for two days destroyed 18,000 buildings and killed at least 300 people, leaving more than three square miles ravaged. On October 11 martial law was imposed. But the first post-fire edition of the Chicago Tribune carried an editorial with the title “Cheer Up.” It assured readers that “the forces of nature, no less than the forces of reason, require that the exchanges of a great nation should be conducted here.” (In fact, Chicago had been settled at a uniquely strategic point, where the waters of the Great Lakes nearly met waters that flowed down into the Mississippi-just as New Orleans is at a uniquely strategic point, where the Mississippi watershed, covering 41 percent of the continental United States, all funnels down to approach the sea, carrying all the cargo either way that that mighty river can and must bear.) Money flowed in from all over the country. The first lumber arrived the day the last flames were extinguished. By the end of November, 212 new stone and brick buildings were under construction. And ultimately the fire only sped up Chicago’s growth. The city’s population doubled every ten years until 1900, reaching a million before 1890. On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake followed by fires that were even worse. There at least 3,000 people were killed, and 300,000-three quarters of the population-were left homeless. Again, aid poured in from around the country, and reconstruction quickly got underway. By 1915, the city was ready to show itself off to the world as a newly built, fireproofed, modern metropolis, displaying itself proudly as it hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. But the most amazing, and relevant, story is that of Galveston, Texas. Galveston was struck by a hurricane on September 8, 1900, that covered the entire city with water, leveled a third of it, and took an estimated 6,000 lives, the country’s most deadly natural disaster ever. Like New Orleans, Galveston seemed hopelessly vulnerable to such destruction because it lay very low right by the ocean-in fact, two miles off the Texas coast. At its highest it rose only nine feet above sea level. Like New Orleans, it had often been inundated before. After the 1900 hurricane, the Galveston city fathers performed one of the most remarkable feats of massive civil engineering in history. They built a high wall around their island against the Gulf of Mexico; they jacked up every house and building that still stood; they moved in 16.3 million cubic yards of sand; and they raised the land under the entire city by up to 11 feet. The effort took a decade. Even before it was over, in 1909, another hurricane hit, and it may have been as powerful as the 1900 one. Only eight people died. Since then, the wall and fill that make the city possible have been rebuilt and extended many times. Galveston has flourished. Rebuilding New Orleans will not be easy and it will not be fast. But history tells us there is no question that it will be done and it will be successful.
August 31, 2005
The President And the Shattered City Posted by Frederick E. Allen at 12:00 PM EST On April 2, 1865, with federal troops moving in, Confederate leaders-the heads of a years-long massive armed insurrection against the United States-evacuated their capital, Richmond, Virginia. Everyone else who could leave left too. That night, the city burned. Mobs overran the streets, looting whatever they could. The city was utterly destroyed. The next morning, Union troops moved in to take control. That very day President Lincoln wrote to his secretary of war, “It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go there tomorrow. I will take care of myself.” And the next day he arrived, unannounced, and walked the ruined streets escorted only by ten sailors. “I know I am free,” shouted an old black woman, “for I have seen father Abraham and felt him.” There was worry that he would be assassinated, that he would be crushed to death. But he stopped to speak to a crowd: “My poor friends, you are free-free as air. . . . Liberty is your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others, and it is a sin that you have been deprived of it for so many years. But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. . . . Don’t let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them; obey God’s commandments and thank him for giving you liberty, for to him you owe all things.”
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