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FENTON'S GEOGRAPHY
Welcome to my website for many things geographical. I studied at the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada, and I'm a member of it's Alumni Association (called "U.T.A.G.A."). Find out what geography as a study, a career, and as a hobby really entails. It's much more than what the lay person would believe. Come on in, check out some links, and tell me what you think.
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February 2010
This month's featured websites:
http://www.getlatlon.com
http://howtohelpsavetheenvironment.com
http://www.build-it-yourself.com – green, enviro-friendly building/constructing
http://thefrugalmap.bargainbriana.com/the-frugal-map/ (USA only)
http://www.creamofwheat.com
https://www.canadaforhaiti.com
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This month's featured article(s):
In the Aftermath
By David A. Graham
Although the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince is still in the beginning stages of digging out from the catastrophic earthquake that hit on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, the city will soon have to turn to putting the pieces back together. In the short term, the survivors who remain will need shelter, goods, and basic services, and in the longer run, the nation will need a functioning city. What form will that take? Will Haitians construct a more durable city, better prepared to withstand earthquakes or the hurricanes that regularly lash the island of Hispaniola? Will they start afresh and obliterate the capital's hectic, disorderly street layout?
When disaster strikes, some cities have risen phoenix-like from fire (or hurricane or earthquake), while others have taken the opportunity not only to rebuild but in fact to leap forward. And some places, just too battered by nature, have never really regained their stride. Here are 10 cities hit by destruction, and how they recovered (or didn't).
The Great Fire of London, 1666
The still-largely wooden English capital was devastated by fire for three days in September 1666. As a long, dry summer came to a close, a blaze ripped through the city's narrow streets, leaving 100,000 homeless--about a sixth of the population--and destroying the 600-year-old St. Paul's Cathedral. In a turbulent political climate and with fears of a Dutch invasion running high, the conflagration could have been a death blow. Instead, the city rebuilt, widening its streets and improving conditions; some historians believe this also helped to end a string of disease epidemics that had ravaged London. Perhaps most enduringly, the architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to build some 50 churches, many of which remain landmarks, especially his monumental domed baroque replacement for the incinerated Old St. Paul's.
Lisbon Earthquake, 1755
In one of the most horrific scenes of destruction ever caused by a natural disaster, the Portuguese capital, then one of Europe’s largest cities, was struck by an earthquake followed by widespread fires and a tsunami, all on All Saints Day, when most of the city’s population was in church. Of the roughly 250,000 residents, around 70,000 were killed (some estimates run as high as 100,000). Eighty-five percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed, including a richly appointed museum, libraries, churches, and a new opera house. Once the wreckage was removed, the city was rebuilt along a more modern scheme, with wide boulevards and large public squares. The larger impact, however, was on European thought—the horrific destruction encouraged Enlightenment thinkers, who found it difficult to reconcile with old theological and philosophical frameworks. At left, a skeleton found in 2007, when restoration at the Academy of Sciences uncovered a mass grave of quake victims.
The Great Fire of Chicago, 1871
As in London, the aftermath of the Chicago fire is a success story. Although the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow starting the blaze is now widely acknowledged to be a myth, the damage was real: 300 dead, 2,000 acres burned, a third of the city's property destroyed, and an equal portion of the population homeless. Within the blaze zone, only a single house and five public buildings remained. But supplies and money began to pour in from across the United States almost immediately; the first load of lumber arrived even as the last embers were being extinguished. Like other big cities, the old Chicago had been largely wooden, and when it became clear that the swampy riverside wouldn't support safer masonry structures, Chicago became a pioneer in steel-frame construction, helping to usher in modern architecture. By 1893, the city was hosting the Columbian Exposition.
Johnstown Flood, 1889
Somewhat forgotten now, the Johnstown flood gripped the nation at the end of the 19th century. After heavy Memorial Day rains, an earthen dam owned by a tony sports club that counted Andrew Mellon and Andrew Carnegie as members broke due to bad maintenance and unleashed a deluge of mud and water on the central Pennsylvania manufacturing town. Many houses were buried; others were swept away and washed against a bridge, where they caught fire, burning for three days and killing dozens still trapped inside. In total, 2,209 were killed, the nation's greatest civilian loss of life at the time. A quick response led by Clara Barton's American Red Cross established the group as the preeminent disaster relief organization in the United States, and within a month, Johnstown's mills were back up and running.
Galveston Flood, 1900
After the nearby town of Indianola was completely destroyed by a hurricane and abandoned, some residents of Galveston, Texas, argued that the low-lying port should build a seawall. They were rebuffed but tragically vindicated when a hurricane brought a wall of water to the town in 1900, destroying all but the most solidly built homes. Caught unaware because of primitive storm-detection systems, the town suffered some 8,000 casualties, the most in any American natural disaster. The stench of the dead could reportedly be smelled for hundreds of miles, and bodies were burned and buried at sea. Afterward, the city was rebuilt and the seawall finally built, and some shipping returned, but Galveston never returned to its former prosperity.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
One of the mighty San Andreas fault's most destructive moments destroyed much of San Francisco and forever shifted the center of California commerce southward. Early on the morning of April 18, an earthquake estimated at a magnitude of 7.8 shook the city. It was followed by widespread fires, which broke out because gas mains had been ruptured by the quake and which are blamed for most of the damage (the use of dynamite in an attempt to stop the blaze's spread likely didn't help). All told, some 3,000 people were killed, more than half of the city's 400,000 residents were left homeless, and the damage cost more than $400 million in 1906 dollars, or about $9.5 billion today. While the city, which for many years was the cultural and economic capital of the west, rebuilt, industry and commerce moved 350 miles south to Los Angeles, which overtook Frisco as a commercial capital.
Chernobyl, 1986
Though hardly a thriving metropolis, the then Soviet town of Pripyat boasted some 50,000 residents on April 26, 1986. That day, in the worst nuclear power accident ever, a reactor at the nearby nuclear power plant named for the neighboring town of Chernobyl exploded. A series of subsequent explosions emitted 400 times the radiation of the Hiroshima bomb. Although only 56 direct deaths were recorded, thousands of cancer cases are blamed on the episode.
Roughly 336,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas, and unlike a fire, earthquake or, flood, it's no simple matter of rebuilding. Because many areas remain poisonous, they are chilling ghost towns today, falling into disrepair and with former residents' personal effects left as they were when the hurried evacuation began.
Bam Earthquake, 2003
What's worse than a 100-year flood? A 2,000-year earthquake, like the one that hit Bam, Iran, on Dec. 26, 2003. In addition to 31,000 dead, the quake destroyed the ancient Arg-e Bam citadel, a Silk Road landmark, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the world's largest adobe structure. The death toll was particularly large because most of the city's buildings were--like the citadel--made of mud bricks; almost all structures were destroyed, leaving 31,000 dead. With government and international support, Bam is slowly rebuilding both its infrastructure and its tourist base. The price tag for reconstruction is expected to reach $1 billion.
Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004
Exactly a year after the Bam quake, an earthquake caused an enormous tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean, flattening entire towns and villages thousands of miles from the quake's epicenter and killing an estimated 230,000 people, making it the fifth most deadly quake ever. Based on its magnitude of 9.0, it was the second largest ever. Because of the wide swath the wave cut and the remoteness of some hard-hit areas, it's hard to draw general conclusions about the recovery effort. In the case of the Indonesian province of Aceh, however, the World Bank has declared work a success.
The international community pledged nearly $8 billion to reconstruct Aceh. There have been some difficulties, but a long-running and violent battle with separatists seems to have ended, while poverty, which unsurprisingly skyrocketed in the wake of the tsunami, is now below pre-quake levels. The vast international effort, coordinated by transnational organizations, could be the template for a successful recovery in Haiti.
Hurricane Katrina, 2005
New Orleans, 2005: Nothing symbolized the bursting of American hubris like Hurricane Katrina, a shocking reminder that disaster can happen anywhere. Low-lying New Orleans was naturally susceptible to hurricanes, and there had been warnings about the city's levees for years, but the images of swamped houses, residents frantically waving for rescue from their rooftops, and masses huddled in squalor at the Superdome were still a shock, as were the many deaths--almost 2,000. After much hand-wringing over whether or not the Crescent City could or should be rebuilt, there's been some progress toward normalization, with restaurants reopening and many refugees returning. Other things have not been so easily fixed. The population is still nearly 150,000 people below the pre-Katrina figure of 485,000, and meanwhile, disputes between the city, state, and federal governments over responsibility have been blamed not only for the botched immediate response but also for the slow recovery effort.
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