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Not until late last night did I become aware of the level of devastation in New Orleans, Biloxi and the surrounding area. Last I'd heard there was less damage than anyone feared...then Amy and I turned on the news. Of course this is nowhere near the level of destruction and loss experienced in the wake of the SE Asian tsunami. The American south had plenty of warning, the buildings there are (for the most part) better built and there's more money immediately on hand to help clean up and heal. Death tolls in the hundreds pale in comparison to numbers in the tens to hundreds of thousands. Katrina was nowhere near as devastating... Unless you happen to be or know one of the people affected. We're conditioned by the media to think of disaster in quantitative terms. So many died, so many dollars of damage. But when you're standing in the middle of a flooded city, looking at the sodden or broken ruins of your home or searching hopelessly through rubble for your spouse or child...the disaster is certainly large enough for you. A question came to mind as we watched the images of destruction - "Why do people live below sea-level on the coast? And why do people always go back to the place that flooded out last year?" Every few years you hear about the Mississippi flooding, wiping out some small town. A few years later you hear about the same town being destroyed...the people moved right back and built on the exact same flood plain. Same thing with hurricanes on the SE American coast. Why? Why on earth would you place yourself in harm's way like that? Then a Biloxi man came on. He was ragged and exhausted and he looked like he was about to cry. "We're just going to rebuild," he said. "Spent my whole life right here in Biloxi. Ol' Biloxi." And it made perfect sense to me. He wasn't leaving for the same reason that you don't abandon your parents when they get old, or your children when they misbehave. He wasn't leaving because he loved his city. Biloxi was family to him, and you don't abandon your family when they need you the most. |
