A Piece of Land

Today, I just went riding.
I drove to check on my houses.
I drove to check on my elderly aunts and cousins (They didn't want to spend the next week in a hot and cramped shelter.).
I drove to try to find some dental-floss. I thought that I was prepared. I have enough deodorant, toothpaste and toilet tissue to last me for weeks - months even.
I didn't think to check my dental-floss levels.

While I was driving around, I noticed something that took me a while to understand. I saw really nice homes with ply-wood covering the windows. I saw average homes with ply-wood on the windows.
The thing that made me think was that I also saw homes that seemed as if the ply-wood intended to protect the windows on was actually holding the home itself together. These homes would appear to be little more than shacks to most Americans. "Why are these people trying to protect that", I thought. But then I thought about it. It's because it's theirs. Or more important, because it's home.

I could never understand why so many of my tenants would not want to leave my small and old homes. I didn't get why these people didn't want to do better for themselves. Many of my tenants have lived in these homes for more than twenty five years. They knew their neighbors, they knew the shopkeepers, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes and clergy. It may not be much... but (even if they were renting) it was home.

It looks as though Gustav is going to do more damage than Katrina. The storm is huge. NOLA is on the dreaded right side (or wet side) of the eye of the storm. Gustav is that big slow moving (but powerful) Russian boxer who will mow everything down in his path. The flooding in Louisiana is going to be terrible. We in South-East Texas will get a lot of rain and wind too. By the time we get hit, Gustav should be almost punched out.

Why do the people in NOLA keep rebuilding in an area prone to natural disasters? Well, Gustav is only the fourth major hurricane to make landfall within fifty miles of NOLA in the past century (Elaina, Katrina and another which I can't recall the name - being the other three).
But the bigger question is; Why do people build their communities in earthquake, wild fire, wind storm and landslide prone California? Why do people build their communities in Tornado-Alley, or even more hurricane prone Florida, or in ice-storm prone New England or the Mid-West or... ?

The problem isn't that houses and the surrounding communities are built in these areas. The problem is in the type of buildings built in these areas. Since the San Francisco earthquake almost a century ago, California has enacted stricter building requirements. Sure, homes are still damaged but not at the same rate as those in areas without such building standards.
Falling Water, one of architect Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous homes, is a beautiful example of his skill and imagination. It's a stunning water side property. The problem with the home is that in Mr. Wright's desire to create - he forgot to take into account the fact that rivers shift. Today, Falling Water is, well... falling into the water.

As I was driving around earlier, I noticed how many tin-shelled building my town has. The town itself looks temporary.
Vidor (the next town over - "famous" for the CNN special on racism. -side note; I've been through this town. It's one big trailer park. It's a dump. They say that Blacks can't live here. It's a dump! Why would they want to live there?) has a double-wide as their City Hall. At one time, I counted more than twenty mobile home dealerships on their stretch of highway. It's a town waiting for a hurricane.
Many buildings in my town will probably be damaged. The choice of materials and the failure to take our conditions into account will be to blame.

If NOLA is flooded, it will be because the buildings weren't built high enough.
If buildings and homes are washed away, it will be because they weren't built strong enough.
Stricter building codes, like those in California and Florida would help a lot.

I'm not sure if the levees will hold.
I'm not sure if all of the work done since Katrina and Rita will be wiped out almost overnight.
But I am sure that the people will always rebuild.
It's home.