And there's the problem in a nutshell. New Orleans can rebuild. History shows that great cities come back after great disasters. London burned the the ground in 1666. It's doing nicely now.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 left over 100,000 homeless and destroyed the entire central business district. Today Chicago is so hip even Oprah calls it home.

Perhaps the closest parallel to New Orleans is the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The numbers are strikingly similar. In 1906, San Francisco had a population of 400,000, roughly the population of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Three days after the earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled the city, an estimated 250,000 San Franciscans were homeless, about the same number as from Katrina.

But while the damage was similar, the responses couldn't have been more different.

After Katrina struck, instead of taking action, people stood around and waited for government help. They didn't realize government officials were standing around trying to figure out which agency should run the show.

March 24, 2006

New Orleans – a different perspective

By Wendell Dawson, Editor, AVOC, Inc.

New Orleans and Katrina have been one of the “battle cries” of the extremists and Left-Wingers since last August.  It is used to denigrate the President.

However, the opinions of many are different from that the Media and Dems would like to portray.  Katrina was a terrible natural disaster.  In decades to come, it will be more fairly and accurately remembered.   When the politics and media hysteria is only a distant memory echo, the facts will be different from the headlines. Real causes can be assessed and corrected.

Many of us have images of not only people in danger but a picture of many living off the Federal dole without self-motivation.  Many of us will remember the flooded school buses.  Time and history will tell a more accurate and balanced story. 

A New Orleans native, Alex McRae, is a syndicated columnist whose columns frequently appear in the Barrow County News.  He  wrote a telling column on March 8, 2006, entitled, “The Worst Mardi Gras ever”.  McRae compares Katrina to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the different ways that the populace and the government officials reacted.  It is a good article.

3-11-06 New Orleans Native – The worst Mardi Gras ever

The Barrow County News http://www.barrowcountynews.com/news/stories/20060308/opinion/74584.shtml

March 8, 2006  

The worst Mardi Gras ever

By Alex McRae

They were determined to party, but the guest of honor was dead. Watching the citizens of my hometown trying to celebrate Mardi Gras was painful.

The worst part was watching New Orleanians trying to figure out what to do next as they try to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Every media outlet in earth was there to record the action and every reporter had the same question for the man on the street: "How are you going to get back to normal?"

Just about every man on the street had the same answer: "That depends on how soon we can get some government relief."

And there's the problem in a nutshell. New Orleans can rebuild. History shows that great cities come back after great disasters. London burned the the ground in 1666. It's doing nicely now.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 left over 100,000 homeless and destroyed the entire central business district. Today Chicago is so hip even Oprah calls it home.

Perhaps the closest parallel to New Orleans is the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The numbers are strikingly similar. In 1906, San Francisco had a population of 400,000, roughly the population of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Three days after the earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled the city, an estimated 250,000 San Franciscans were homeless, about the same number as from Katrina.

But while the damage was similar, the responses couldn't have been more different.

After Katrina struck, instead of taking action, people stood around and waited for government help. They didn't realize government officials were standing around trying to figure out which agency should run the show.

In San Francisco that wasn't the case.

The San Francisco quake occurred at 5:12 a.m. City and state officials didn't send a telegraph to the White House saying "help." They sent a telegram to the U.S. Army. Less than four hours later, troops from 12 different units of the Army had assembled at the ruins of city hall. They were told to keep order and stop looting. Five hundred looters were shot in 24 hours. After that, law enforcement wasn't a problem.

The city needed food. Luckily they didn't have to go through FEMA. Within 12 hours after the quake, 200,000 meal rations were on the way from military bases throughout the west.

People needed shelter. City and state officials this time turned to Washington, telegraphing Secretary of War Taft to ask for Army tents. Taft wired back. He didn't insist on a "needs assessment." He advised that every spare tent in the U.S. Army was on the way. Every one.

When the quake hit, state and city officials knew money was needed immediately to rebuild San Francisco. First, they started selling municipal bonds. Then they asked the federal government to deposit money in California banks. The money wasn't given away to the "less fortunate." It was loaned to businesses and individuals-even the poorest- who wanted to rebuild and were willing to pay for the opportunity to start over.

The homes and businesses built back, the banks were repaid and the 1906 earthquake started an economic boom.

It could happen in New Orleans, too. But only if people have a change of heart and mind.

The greatest lesson of Katrina is not that hurricanes can have devastating consequences. The greatest lesson is that while the military can keep people safe, sound and fed in the short term, waiting for the bureaucracy to solve long term problems only leads to long term misery.

In 2006, Mardi Gras was a platform to poke fun at FEMA for doing nothing. Maybe at next year's Mardi Gras, the people of New Orleans can celebrate themselves for doing something.

Alex McRae is a columnist and feature writer with the Times-Herald in Newnan.