History Does Repeat Itself, So What's the Lesson?

The top picture shows a tiny slice of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. The bottom picture was taken 40 years earlier in the same parish, after 1965's Hurricane Betsy roared through the area. Two hurricanes, 40 years apart, but the same result. Why?

To make the parish and neighboring New Orleans flood-proof might or might not be possible. That's up to the engineers to determine. What the pictures should be reminding us of is that sooner or later, no matter the precautions taken by man, another great flood will spill across the swamps and pour into the neighborhoods of Arabi, Chalmette, Meraux, and Violet, laying waste to people's lives and dreams.

Hurricane Betsy should have been a wake up call, but as human nature would have it, the people of St. Bernard drifted back into complaceny after the putrid waters receded and their homes had been restored. Life was too good to worry about what might not happen. Why tax yourself to protect yourself from the "big one," that mythical killer hurricane that would drown cars, houses, and people like proverbial rats in a rain barrel?

And so everybody went back to the old habits. A Friday night beer and oyster sandwich at Rocky and Carlos. High school football. A weekly trip to "make groceries" at Schwegmann's. Whatever the amusement, it made it easy to forget the risk. Even Mother Nature seemed forgiving. St. Bernard dodged a bullet when 1969's Hurricane Camille veered eastward to smash the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the years passed, good luck held as gulf hurricanes took one path or another away from the parish. Until Katrina.

As one old timer put it, life in St. Bernard was more a habit than anything else. Or maybe it was an addiction. Habits can be broken, but addictions ...? The people of St. Bernard are now as scattered as the children of ancient Israel. Will a Moses appear to lead them back to their promised land?

Economically, there are reasons to return. The sugar refinery, the oil refinereries, the easy-going charm of next-door New Orleans. But as former residents of St. Bernard are allowed to return in the next few months, it will not be hard-nosed economic calculations that drive them to return. They will be lead by their hearts.

The Lesson? It may be silly to some, but "home is where the heart is" is more than a saying. It's a living emotion that makes people come together to rebuild, even when to the outside world it makes no sense because of the risk.

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