Spring Break
New Orleans: Helping those who help themselves
By: Ken Kaighan
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Last update: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Originally published: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
Last update: 4/20/07 at 5:25 AM EST
In the first week after Galveston was nearly wiped off the face of the US map, they had restored their water and telegraph services. By the third week, things had improved to the point that the relief groups from neighboring Houston went home. The citizens of Galveston that survived were eager to rebuild their city and continue their lives. They instituted two great civil engineering projects to protect them in the future: building a great seawall to retain some of the waters and raising the natural grade of the city by as much as 11 feet. And this was in the era before governments were expected to provide the bulwark of funding.
In the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, rebuilding plans were hatched quickly to salvage the hosting of the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915, which they did. Nearly five million dollars in charitable donations were pulled in, of which the US government provided only 20 percent. In nine short years, the local businesses and residents had rebuilt a large portion of their city, in part due to lax building code standards.
Contrast this with the current reactions of local residents and even fellow Americans to Katrina. A metropolitan area of nearly 1.4 million residents was flooded to the roofs of two-story houses. Nineteen months later and parts are still described as "ghost towns" and "graveyards." There have been no concerted efforts seen by the local citizens to rebuild their lives. On the contrary, for every heart-warming tale of a family attempting to rebuild its homes, you hear the stories of neighboring cities that counter those.
My wife and I recently made a trip to Houston to visit friends for their wedding. The husband, a residential contractor, told me some of the wonderfully idiotic tales of his local purchasers: people who blocked their weep holes with top soil and gardens and then wondered why their living rooms were flooding; buyers who run their high-efficiency air-conditioning systems while leaving windows open in the house, only to complain that the mechanical system isn't very "efficient" when pointing to their utility bills.
In the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, rebuilding plans were hatched quickly to salvage the hosting of the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915, which they did. Nearly five million dollars in charitable donations were pulled in, of which the US government provided only 20 percent. In nine short years, the local businesses and residents had rebuilt a large portion of their city, in part due to lax building code standards.
Contrast this with the current reactions of local residents and even fellow Americans to Katrina. A metropolitan area of nearly 1.4 million residents was flooded to the roofs of two-story houses. Nineteen months later and parts are still described as "ghost towns" and "graveyards." There have been no concerted efforts seen by the local citizens to rebuild their lives. On the contrary, for every heart-warming tale of a family attempting to rebuild its homes, you hear the stories of neighboring cities that counter those.
My wife and I recently made a trip to Houston to visit friends for their wedding. The husband, a residential contractor, told me some of the wonderfully idiotic tales of his local purchasers: people who blocked their weep holes with top soil and gardens and then wondered why their living rooms were flooding; buyers who run their high-efficiency air-conditioning systems while leaving windows open in the house, only to complain that the mechanical system isn't very "efficient" when pointing to their utility bills.
doctorj
posted 4/20/07 @ 8:00 AM EST
This writer and article are a great example of what is wrong with this country and this government. I am a native New Orleanian and I have been in the devastated neighborhoods helping these "lazy?" citizens rebuild their lives. (Continued…)