Hmmmm.

The Diaspora of New Orleans?

Frankly I think most of the former residents of New Orleans will never return. Or if they do, it'll be as tourists.

Not that we got hit as hard as the people of New Orleans, but the city of Winter park, FL (near Orlando) lost around 8,000 oak trees last year in hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Many of these trees were over 100 years old. A private group has establish a fund to buy new trees (see http://www.winterparkliveoakfund.org/introduction.php) and they have already started planning the new trees. Maybe the folks in New Orleans could do something similar.

doug:
I live in downtown Orlando, and the biggest lesson I learned was that laurel oaks and live oaks break differently in hurricane winds.

Live oaks fall over. Laurel oaks *shatter*. And neither of them are good for areas that get hurricanes. Large trees with wide canopies and shallow root systems are a bad, bad choice for sandy Florida ground.

It's really interesting, standing next to the trunk of a tree that's got a trunk thicker than I am tall, that got pulled out of the ground like a weed...

http://solomon2.blogspot.com/2005/09/on-levees-of-new-orleans.html

Update 8. Tech info, links, commentary.

I used the word diaspora immediately after the flood.

It's one of those seismic cultural events that will change things profoundly going forward,but which can't be predicted; the stuff of fiction, the stuff of "what if" history scenarios. Fascinating, at the same time sad for those living it closely.

I'm glad for you, Paul, but equally saddened about so many others.

I think about Pompeii and Herculaneum and just look where they perched those beautiful homes and for so long, concluding Mount Vesuvius would never erupt.

Point being that with some risks, all it takes is that once-in-a-lifetime/millenium event to make it reasonable, if not very prudent, to live elsewhere.

Just to make sure we don't forget how much was lost we should start using the name hurricane Katrillion.

Diaspora is an excellent term. Like the Jews of old, the people of NO will bring the good things of their culture with them. Its already bearing fruit here in Lower Alabama. My youngest has been able to jam with a mondo jazz drummer who is sheltering here. So far he likes it here (despite the relative lack difficulty in obtaining drugs in our small town ;-) and may not return after the cleanup. Several other musical refugees are really 'jazzing' up the local scene.

Tob

I've been saying fro the start that this is going to improve food & music all across the country.

Hmmmm.

"I've been saying fro the start that this is going to improve food & music all across the country."

Sorry but the only thing that could possibly do that would be a rain of kimchee across the nation.

hehe :)

Paul, I'm glad you made it through okay. We got back home several days ago and I've gotten pretty handy with my newest toy - a chainsaw! Don't lose hope for the city; I know some people won't come back - I'm losing a lot of friends to other cities too - but as things come back together, I think many will reconsider. Things are coming back together faster than most people predicted, and I think we'll pick up momentum and be functioning pretty soon. When people see that, they'll come home to New Orleans.