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Mark Scheinbaum
Mr. Biz
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COULD RUINS OF POMPEII SAVE NEW ORLEANS? |
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POMPEII, Italy. Under two thousand years of volcanic ash, could there be a clue
to the survival of New Orleans?
Fernando Nando, historian and guide from nearby Naples, smoothes his salt and
pepper hair reminds visitors to "remember that about 15 years before the
gigantic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 the city of Pompeii was very seriously
damaged by a massive earthquake."
The fact is that before trying to place a Hurricane Katrina or Andrew, a massive
earthquake in Pakistan, or a tsunami in Asia in modern context, one might look
at the historic context. Mr. Nando reports best estimates are, "Pompeii and
surrounding villages have been destroyed and rebuilt 85 times since recorded history."
Many of the slave, working class, and middle class homes damaged in that Pompeii
quake were destroyed or still seriously damaged when the 25 feet of volcanic dust
buried Pompeii in 79 A.D., but the most patrician of homes, temples, and meeting
places had already been partially or fully rebuilt in the 15 years. The city of
Pompeii where 20,000 people or more were suffocated by the ashen fumes, had been
inhabited for at least 800 years before that volcanic eruption.
While walking the streets of the destroyed city, and the newest town and nearby
seaside villages, it provides a perspective far from insurance companies and public
and private liabilities for natural disasters.
Even while living most of my life in hurricane zones, I prided myself with the
curmudgeon philosophy of not rebuilding houses and farms along Missouri River
flood plains or South Carolina seashores. Let the risk takers pay their own self-insurance
or be damned. If it takes $20 billion to rebuild a poor neighborhood which could
be underwater again by next year, well, just turn it into a park and move the
people somewhere else. But what if the story of Pompeii is the real lesson for
survival and history?
What if the human determination to persevere even in hardship is the true birthright
of our species?
What if five days, or five years, or five centuries, of glorious mountain vistas,
and Mediterranean sunsets trumps the natural disaster of a century, or a millennium?
What if the recollection of my folks, grandparents, and great-grandparents is
reason enough to rebuild my town or neighborhood? It makes you think and it makes
you less chauvinistic. Gumbo and jambalaya and jazz are no less part of the patina
of America than bath houses and temples were to the ancient Romans in Pompeii.
Perhaps every street and every playground and every park and every bar and every
church in New Orleans should be restored in a stronger format and more protected
environment, just because we have the technology to do so. Mr. Nando takes visitors
from the cold waters of the bath house, to the chamber with warm water, to the
large steam room which was the communal sauna of its day. "It's sort of funny,"
he shrugs. "Even with the weight of 25 feet of ash on the building this is
probably the only room and the only building pretty much undamaged by the volcanic
eruption. Look at the ceiling. It's curved. It's an arch. After the earthquake
someone thought to rebuild it stronger with an arch instead of a flat roof. The
Romans were not going to give up their hot baths!"
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