Tale of two cities.

• Author: Werner, Louis
• Position: VIEWPOINT - Lima and Callao, Peru

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On Friday, October 28, 1746, not long after dark, one of the finest cities in all the Americas--a multicultural mixing pot founded just over two hundred years earlier by one of the world's greatest empires and still treasured as its most precious overseas possession--was almost totally destroyed by a tremendous shaking of the earth followed by a rapidly rushing wall of water.

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On Monday, August 29, 2005, not long after dawn, another fine American city--also a cosmopolitan potpourri founded just under three hundred years earlier by another of the world's great empires and still treasured as its most nostalgic overseas legacy--was almost totally destroyed by a tremendous wind, followed by a slowly rising expanse of water.

What happened in Lima and Callao, Peru in 1746 was an earthquake of a magnitude estimated between 8.0 and 8.6 on the Richter scale, followed by a tsunami that temporarily raised the sea level 24 feet and reached three miles inland. It was followed by a politically concerted effort which, financed by the tangible wealth of Andean silver mines and dedicated tax revenues, quickly rebuilt Lima into an even grander city.

What happened in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005 was Hurricane Katrina, with winds of nearly 130 miles per hour, followed by a flood caused by more than 50 broken levees and up to fifteen inches of rain. It was followed by a politically confused effort which, hampered by the loss of the city's ephemeral entertainment-based economy and a bulging federal deficit, has still not managed to overcome all the devastating effects of the hurricane.

The compassionate leadership shown in Lima after its earthquake rates favorably in comparison to the US government response to New Orleans. Upon seeing that iris own family was safe, the Marquis of Ovando, Commander of Spain's Pacific Fleet, gathered a rescue party to help the nuns in nearby convents and to pull the dead from their homes, including the father and mother of his friend Pedro Olavide. As he later wrote, he heard from the fallen rubble "pleas for divine mercy and the sobs of the wounded ... like prisoners in caves, begging for aid with their last cries. Many died this way." But the Marquis did save Olavide's two sisters and gave them water from his canteen.

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Lima in 1746 was much the same city that the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro had founded in 1535, its rigid 13 x 9 block street grid, or damero, still providing order to the city's historic center. The population had grown to some 50,000 people. Many were slaves brought from Africa, others were native Peruvians coming down from the Andes, and many others were already the multi-colored result of every kind of caste mixing. The city was a polished gem of the Spanish colonial Baroque.

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New Orleans in 2005 was much the same city that the French explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville had laid out in 1721, and its 11 x 7 block Vieux Carre, or French Quarter, was still beating as the cultural heart. The population had swollen to almost half a million people, many the descendants of slaves and immigrants from all over the world. But the city remained a gem, even if slightly tarnished, of French Creole architecture and gentility.

Both cities had to overcome major urban disasters that destroyed their physical infrastructure, killed many of...