# Cities that recovered from major disasters **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618 "2016-06-28T12:09:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/1 "2016-06-28T12:09:31Z")
The 150th anniversary of the [Great Portland Fire](http://specialprojects.pressherald.com/portlands-great-fire/) is coming up. This was the fourth major fire in our city’s history. Our town motto is “Resurgam”, latin for “I will rise again”, refering to the many times the city was destroyed and recovered. Many of the stories about this fire mention not just the devastation, but the recovery. What are some other towns that suffered massive damage, but recovered well from it? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/2 "2016-06-28T12:19:54Z")
Lisbon ([quake](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1755_11_01.php), tsunami and fire, 1755). The same quake caused damage in a lot of Portugal, Spain and Morocco, with the worst damage in coastal areas due to tsunamis. Santander ([fire](https://pamelacahill.com/2013/08/02/1941/), 1941) Chicago (fire, 1871). But searching for it brings me a TV series about firemen. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/3 "2016-06-28T12:35:28Z")
San Francisco, of course. Tokyo, and a lot of other places on fault lines. Actually, now that I think of it, innumerable European and Japanese cities were bombed to rubble or completely wiped out by rampaging armies in World War II, and today many are so exquisitely rebuilt you’d never know it happened. Dresden looks great for a city that was effectively incinerated. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/4 "2016-06-28T12:36:30Z")
[Johnstown, PA.](http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/history.html) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/5 "2016-06-28T13:03:45Z")
The Great Fire of London. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/6 "2016-06-28T13:42:52Z")
Boston had [The Great Molasses Flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood). It actually only affected a small portion of the city, but I’m sure the event and the aftermath were both spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/7 "2016-06-28T13:50:11Z")
Galveston, TX, after the hurricane of 1900. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/8 "2016-06-28T14:01:22Z")
[Texas City exploded in 1947](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster), in what was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in U.S. history. It’s well remembered, but the city has recovered. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/9 "2016-06-28T14:21:37Z")
Here are the other Portland fires 1676- The Abenaki tribe destroyed the city in a war. 1690- Portland was destroyed in the French and Indian War > **[History of Portland, Maine |](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portland,_Maine#Raid_on_Portland_.281676.29)** > > In 1676, the village was completely destroyed by the Abenaki people during King Philip's War. When English colonists returned in 1678, they erected Fort Loyal on India Street to ward off future attacks. 1775- [Bombarded with hot-shot cannons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Falmouth) that started a massive fire. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/10 "2016-06-28T14:28:28Z")
How about New Orleans since Katrina? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/11 "2016-06-28T14:36:28Z")
That whole Chicago Fire thing. St. Louis has had multiple tornado strikes, including several that went right through the heart of the city. Ditto for Louisville. [Anchorage, Alaska](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake) was hit by the most powerful earthquake ever to strike North America. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/12 "2016-06-28T14:41:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > San Francisco, of course. Tokyo, and a lot of other places on fault lines. > > Actually, now that I think of it, innumerable European and Japanese cities were bombed to rubble or completely wiped out by rampaging armies in World War II, and today many are so exquisitely rebuilt you’d never know it happened. Dresden looks great for a city that was effectively incinerated. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is Warsaw. Warsaw saw the usual bombing and destruction of war, but then - as a result of its inhabitants uprising against the Nazis - the historic center of Warsaw was deliberately destroyed pretty well to the bare rubble, brick by brick, by the Nazis as a purposeful measure of vengeance and desecration. The historic center of Warsaw was later completely rebuilt in a massive recreation effort - from records, paintings, etc. The rebuilt city center became a UNESCO world heritage site. > **[Historic Centre of Warsaw](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/30)** > > During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, more than 85% of Warsaw's historic centre was destroyed by Nazi troops. After the war, a five-year reconstruction campaign by its citizens resulted in today's meticulous ... ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/13 "2016-06-28T14:52:00Z")
[Napier, New Zealand - 1931 earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Hawke%27s_Bay_earthquake) It’s now considered one of the best preserved Art Deco towns in the world. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/14 "2016-06-28T16:42:41Z")
It is even more unusual for a city to NOT recover from a disaster. They alost always do. One notable exception is Varosha, Cyprus, from which 40,000 people fled with dinner on the table one morning in 1974, never to return. It stands today as an unpopulated ghost town, still completely intact. I’ve been in at least two other towns that had a thriving population then, and not a single buiklding is left standing now: Valsetz, Oregon, and La Guera, Sahrawi. All the above were abandoned for economic or political reasons, not a natural disster. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/15 "2016-06-28T16:50:14Z")
[Halifax explosion.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/16 "2016-06-28T17:19:14Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It is even more unusual for a city to NOT recover from a disaster. They alost always do. One notable exception is Varosha, Cyprus, from which 40,000 people fled with dinner on the table one morning in 1974, never to return. It stands today as an unpopulated ghost town, still completely intact. [That’s fascinating.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varosha,_Famagusta) “Completely intact” is not accurate; the place is slowly falling apart. It’s the real-world answer to the question occasionally asked: “how fast would a city fall apart if it were not continuously maintained?” ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/17 "2016-06-28T17:26:34Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It is even more unusual for a city to NOT recover from a disaster. They alost always do. One notable exception is Varosha, Cyprus… One other example that comes to mind is [Centralia, Pennsylvania,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire) where an unstoppable underground coal fire has released persistent toxic gases and caused ground subsidence over the past 50+ years. The town is now almost completely abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/18 "2016-06-28T17:40:56Z")
Another example is the former capital of Guatemala, partly destroyed by a volcanic mudflow. The whole city was moved and the site abandoned. > **[Ciudad Vieja](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Vieja)** > > Ciudad Vieja (Spanish pronunciation: \[sjuˈðað ˈβjexa\]) is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Sacatepéquez. According to the 2018 census, the town has a population of 32,802 and the municipality a population of 33,405. Ciudad Vieja was the second site of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, the colonial capital of the country. > San Miguel Escobar is the modern name for the district that contains the ruins of the second colonial capital of the Guatemala region. The Spania... That capital city was then moved _again_ - after it was partly destroyed by an earthquake. > **[Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_los_Caballeros_de_Guatemala)** > > Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala") was the name given to the capital city of the Spanish colonial Captaincy General of Guatemala in Central America. > Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}14°34′N 90°44′W / 14.567°N 90.7... ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/19 "2016-06-28T18:48:17Z")
I don’t think Chernobyl will be rebuilding any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618/20 "2016-06-28T18:55:11Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > That whole Chicago Fire thing. > > St. Louis has had multiple tornado strikes, including several that went right through the heart of the city. Ditto for Louisville. > > [Anchorage, Alaska](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake) was hit by the most powerful earthquake ever to strike North America. I was in Anchorage when that happened. Downtown was devastated, as was an outlying residential area, most schools and other structures along the fault line. It was remarkable how quickly the city recovered; luckily there was no major fire. Prince William Sound took the brunt of the tsunamis. The town of Valdez ended up being relocated in its entirety to higher ground after it was all over. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-recovered-from-major-disasters/758618.md?page=2)