Because I live in Florida, it's possible that I pay more attention to high-intensity storms than most. It's also possible I follow the cycle of natural disasters and rebuilding in particular because I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which is battered by hurricanes practically every summer. While I've been lucky enough not to experience anything on the level of Katrina or the recent Burma cyclone, I've seen plenty of destroyed homes, downed trees, and eroded coastline. Lately, I'm fascinated by the trend of viewing storm-damaged cities as blank slates and turning them into models of ecological sustainability.

New Orleans, for instance. You've likely already heard of Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation, but you may not know just what a huge, hopeful project it is. The Lower 9th Ward, a culturally rich community that experienced catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is still rebuilding. Many residents still live in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers.

Make it Right seeks to rebuild their homes by creating healthy, safe spaces for residents that not only use sustainable materials and conserve energy but are also strong enough to withstand hurricane winds and flooding. With 150 homes, some based on designs from his earlier Global Green architecture contest, Pitt hopes to generate more eco-friendly rebuilding throughout New Orleans.

And this model of community and sustainability is worth duplicating:

In keeping with Make It Right’s overarching priority to work in cooperation with former residents of the Lower 9th Ward, the approach to new home design began directly with the homeowners themselves. Because local cultural influences gave rise to the pre-Katrina architecture so emblematic of the area, preserving that identity remains vital in reclaiming the spirit of the neighborhood. MIR’s goal is to join the history of this tradition with creative new architectural solutions mindful of environmental and personal safety concerns in order to encourage both the evolution of aesthetic distinctiveness and the conscientious awareness of natural surroundings. -- Make it Right Foundation

But while Brad Pitt's fame generates vast amounts of publicity for the New Orleans project, a Kansas community equally devastated by another natural disaster has been rebuilding along similar lines. In appropriately named Greensburg, Kansas, one of the most powerful tornadoes in recorded history nearly obliterated the entire town in the spring of 2007.

Literally.

The storm destroyed almost every tree, house, and building in Greensburg, and now the tiny working-class city is striving to be the greenest town in America. Hurting economically before the tornado, Greensburg is now building LEED gold-certified townhouses and the Discovery Channel is filming a documentary about the eco-city.

If it seems unusual for such a progressive, forward-thinking community to go up in a prairie town in a dusty corner of western Kansas, think again. According to Danny Wallach of Greensburg Greentown,

[R]esidents here embraced environmental sustainability as good old-fashioned thrift and independence.

"They really get it, and they say 'OK, it's not this crazy tree-hugger agenda.' It's common sense, and it's what these people are really about," Wallach said. -- NPR

Should we expect anything less in a state whose governor is facing off with Big Coal?

But the idea of revitalizing cities as green spaces after natural disasters stretches even further back, all the way to Ecuador in 1999. After heavy rains, an earthquake, and mudslides rendered 20% of its citizens homeless, the city of Bahia de Caraquez partnered with San Francisco's Planet Drum Foundation to become an Eco-City:

The Ecuadorian coastal city of Bahia de Caraquez has committed itself through law to become ecological and sustainable. Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco, California helped create community awareness of issues there at a celebration announcing the Ecological City Declaration in January 1999.

Since then, Planet Drum has established a field office and carried out a major bioregional project to revegetate a city barrio with native trees for erosion control against future mudslides and to create an urban "wild corridor." We are currently working on additional revegetation of hillsides, water supply and purity, household ecology education, biological sewage treatment, alternative energy, and others. -- Planet Drum

The recent Burma tragedy, with a staggering 100,000 estimated dead and the ruling military junta hindering international aid, throws rebuilding efforts elsewhere in sharp relief. Developed countries with a strong infrastructure and without the strict control of military rule have the opportunity to follow the examples of New Orleans, Greensburg, and Bahia de Caraquez, and turn natural disasters into a catalyst for ecological renovation.