Post by propagandist on Apr 6, 2013 19:08:44 GMT -7
How is Tuscaloosa doing with it's post-tornado rebuilding? Is it going to be better?
I found this article that might be of interest, mentioning Tuscaloosa:
Lessons from Greensburg: Towns devastated by tornadoes look to rebuild
"Sometimes the stars align, and it's a magical moment," he said.
The town rebranded itself as a truly "green" community, and within four years of the tornado, on May 4, 2007, Dixson said the community has rebuilt all major municipal buildings, a hospital and a K-12 school, to LEED-certified standards.
The U.S. Green Building Council, USGBC, certifies energy efficient buildings to LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standards.
Dixson said many green building technologies were first tried out on Greensburg.
"We're a living laboratory," he said.
The idea of building and service consolidation - along with seizing the opportunity of a clean slate - is one of the big things that officials from recently devastated communities have taken away from the small Kansas town.
Greensburg has hosted recovery summits for many communities, both large and small, ranging from Tuscaloosa to the tiny town of Smithville to help them through their rebuilding process and help them decide how to move forward.
The meetings emphasize how destruction could be an opportunity and not just a loss.
"The biggest thing that we brought back, or at least I did, is seizing an opportunity," said John McConnell, Tuscaloosa's Director of Planning and Development Services.
"They thought in terms of integrated systems: in other words, they lost everything," McConnell said.
Tuscaloosa was hit by an EF4 tornado on April 27, 2011 that left 43 dead and flattened a large chunk in the city of more than 80,000.
Although Tuscaloosa is more than 100 times the size of Greensburg, it faces many of the same challenges.
After the meeting in Greensburg, the Tuscaloosa Task Force launched an online town hall to gather community input from residents about what they want in their rebuilt community.
At the website, residents can submit ideas ranging from land use and urban design to infrastructure and sustainability.
Hundreds of ideas and thousands of comments have been submitted, making Tuscaloosa's page the most active town hall the site has had so far. Many people seemed to want more sidewalks and biking trails in the city, something which was also implemented in Greensburg to promote shopping and foot traffic.
And though it may take a while for any of the ideas to pan out, it gives city officials a place to start in planning for the future.
All of the communities affected by this deadly storm season have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
Despite Greensburg's progress, four years out it still is not back to its pre-storm population.
McConnell surveyed the town while he was visiting.
"They are four years out from their tornado, and it was a small rural community, and they lost half their population, half their population did not come back," he said.
"There are still a lot of vacant lots."
Dixson said that the difficult part now is creating the jobs to attract residents.
"Everyone that has a job or source of income has already rebuilt their homes," he said.
Greensburg is banking that its name and green status will prove useful in attracting green energy industry to the community. Meanwhile, it survives on the agriculture, oil and gas jobs that returned after the storm.
While jobs may not be as much of an issue for a larger community like Tuscaloosa, which is large enough to buffer any temporary loss, for small towns like Smithville it could be devastating.
But Bond said she learned one more thing from her visit to the small town in Kansas.
"You can come back after an EF5."
www.wsmv.com/story/15091398/lessons-from-greensburg-towns-devastated-by-tornadoes-look-to-rebuild
I found this article that might be of interest, mentioning Tuscaloosa:
Lessons from Greensburg: Towns devastated by tornadoes look to rebuild
"Sometimes the stars align, and it's a magical moment," he said.
The town rebranded itself as a truly "green" community, and within four years of the tornado, on May 4, 2007, Dixson said the community has rebuilt all major municipal buildings, a hospital and a K-12 school, to LEED-certified standards.
The U.S. Green Building Council, USGBC, certifies energy efficient buildings to LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standards.
Dixson said many green building technologies were first tried out on Greensburg.
"We're a living laboratory," he said.
The idea of building and service consolidation - along with seizing the opportunity of a clean slate - is one of the big things that officials from recently devastated communities have taken away from the small Kansas town.
Greensburg has hosted recovery summits for many communities, both large and small, ranging from Tuscaloosa to the tiny town of Smithville to help them through their rebuilding process and help them decide how to move forward.
The meetings emphasize how destruction could be an opportunity and not just a loss.
"The biggest thing that we brought back, or at least I did, is seizing an opportunity," said John McConnell, Tuscaloosa's Director of Planning and Development Services.
"They thought in terms of integrated systems: in other words, they lost everything," McConnell said.
Tuscaloosa was hit by an EF4 tornado on April 27, 2011 that left 43 dead and flattened a large chunk in the city of more than 80,000.
Although Tuscaloosa is more than 100 times the size of Greensburg, it faces many of the same challenges.
After the meeting in Greensburg, the Tuscaloosa Task Force launched an online town hall to gather community input from residents about what they want in their rebuilt community.
At the website, residents can submit ideas ranging from land use and urban design to infrastructure and sustainability.
Hundreds of ideas and thousands of comments have been submitted, making Tuscaloosa's page the most active town hall the site has had so far. Many people seemed to want more sidewalks and biking trails in the city, something which was also implemented in Greensburg to promote shopping and foot traffic.
And though it may take a while for any of the ideas to pan out, it gives city officials a place to start in planning for the future.
All of the communities affected by this deadly storm season have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
Despite Greensburg's progress, four years out it still is not back to its pre-storm population.
McConnell surveyed the town while he was visiting.
"They are four years out from their tornado, and it was a small rural community, and they lost half their population, half their population did not come back," he said.
"There are still a lot of vacant lots."
Dixson said that the difficult part now is creating the jobs to attract residents.
"Everyone that has a job or source of income has already rebuilt their homes," he said.
Greensburg is banking that its name and green status will prove useful in attracting green energy industry to the community. Meanwhile, it survives on the agriculture, oil and gas jobs that returned after the storm.
While jobs may not be as much of an issue for a larger community like Tuscaloosa, which is large enough to buffer any temporary loss, for small towns like Smithville it could be devastating.
But Bond said she learned one more thing from her visit to the small town in Kansas.
"You can come back after an EF5."
www.wsmv.com/story/15091398/lessons-from-greensburg-towns-devastated-by-tornadoes-look-to-rebuild