Living at the coast

I was born and raised in a very dry Western state. My husband was born in the Southwest, also rather waterless. Every few years since we began making a home together, we have a discussion about moving to the coast. . . any coast. We have seen the Atlantic from Florida to Maine. We have seen the Pacific from San Diego to Seattle. We have seen the Gulf from CanCun to New Orleans. And we are not alone. In fact, many people have acted on similar dreams to ours. Living at the coast is still a very attractive idea to lots of us, according to this USA Today story: "Coastal counties from Texas to New England are growing by about 1,300 people every day despite a decade-long surge of hurricanes that has peaked this year with the most in one season since 1969."
We are still reading and hearing storm victims' stories. Author Blake Bailey, for example, has written a series of good posts in Slate Magazine about he and his wife's experiences as New Orleans evacuees after Hurricane Katrina.
The cost of such deciding to move to or even visit the coast can be very high, as we have seen in stark detail during this hurricane season. For several days Hurricane Wilma has been pounding the coast of Mexico's Yuccatan Peninsula, causing huge damage, and it looks like Florida is in for yet another big blow.
After the winds die down we try to find out what happened to all the people in the storm. Officials try to see to safety both before and after hurricanes. But then reality sets in.
Starting in late August if you were watching television, we can all can call up the mental picture of what it looked like when these very big storm challenges were not been well met. Today taxpayers are still paying former FEMA Director Mike Brown's salary! Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff spent most of a day last week being grilled by the House Select Committee on the Preparation and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Our current president's Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend recently acknowledged the lack of preparedness for the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
This is the reality of the disaster relief for the Gulf Coast. But the most impossible problems in some ways are concentrated in New Orleans. What happens to the thousands of evacuees scattered all over the nation? Each must decide about coming home; when - and to what? And the state of Louisiana, the federal government and the city must also decide what to do and when, even before the bulk of residents can return.
Bill Quigley writes in Common Dreams about a number of core issues related New Orleans' recovery and leaving the poor behind. The cost in human misery before, during and after Katrina has been astounding. The environmental disaster will be there for a very long time. The Sierra Club's Carl Pope posed some of the most important environmental issues following Hurricane Katrina.
The repopulation of New Orleans is a seemingly insurmountable problem. In Blog for America Monisha Sujan explored the demographics of return. Who gets privilege, who does not? Legal questions about how to rebuild New Orleans is covered in this interesting new article from the LA Times: Old Twist on Rebuilding New Orleans - Yahoo! News (see title link above). The rights and responsibilities of the property owners hinge on their ability to pay for restoration. The city has the responsibility for agreeing on a rebuilding plan. The big questions are who gets to decide, and who will pay?
Living at the coast is wonderful in so many ways. Each local culture is unique; like their foods, the area's history or their favorite forms of entertainment. The architecture varies widely, the people moreso. Breezes are brisk or balmy, depending on the location and the weather. Waves are challenging or soothing depending on how high they are. Vistas are beyond description in so many of the places at the Edge. That Edge -the wonderful coastlands -pose the question for thousands and thousands of people right now. We had better get it right.