Alderperson Alex Schultz’s Invocation At 01/15/2025 Common Council Meeting – “[I]n the face of such catastrophic disasters, our best traits as a species rise to the surface.”

Mayor Jake Woodford: Please rise for the invocation which will be delivered by Alder Schultz.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9): Call this “A Matter of Perspective.” As I deliver this invocation, our current President is beginning his last public address to the nation as he prepares to hand the reins over to the next duly elected president. Many of us are feeling more than a little anxious about what is to come and the potential negative impacts that might stem from the stated goals of the new administration.

Also, at this very moment, a resurgence of hurricane force winds widen the footprint of destruction through an already devastated LA and surrounding areas, expanding the worst catastrophic fire event this nation has experienced this century. More than 13,000 homes, businesses, schools and other structures have already been destroyed by the raging wildfires. Unless you live through it, you can’t possibly understand the magnitude of these or despair these tragic losses of life home and entire communities represent. It’s nearly impossible for us here to comprehend.

But it is also true that in the face of such catastrophic disasters, our best traits as a species rise to the surface. We let go of the petty differences that divide us and instead focus on helping each other cope physically, financially, and emotionally as we build from nothing but ash. And on occasion, the missed possibilities of prevention compel community leaders to take long, hard looks at the root causes that often change the status quo approach to rebuilding our communities by reshaping the rules for new development with resiliency and adaptation in mind.

Some examples, the great flood of 1889 widely considered to be one of the worst natural disasters in US history, which engulfed the town of Jonestown, Pennsylvania, with flood lines reaching as high as 89 feet above sea level. The flood completely destroyed four square miles of the town, caused $17 million in property damage and over 2000 deaths. But the disaster prompted the evolution of one of America’s most heralded disaster relief organizations, the American Red Cross.

In 1906 the San Andreas Fault ruptured off the coast of San Francisco. That earthquake lasted only about a minute, but it leveled a significant portion of the city almost immediately. Subsequent fires soon erupted, consuming nearly 500 city blocks and causing 400 million in property loss. Rebuilding the city took time, but by 1915 there was almost no visible damage left, and San Francisco hosted the Panama Pacific International Exposition as a way to reopen the city to the world.

In 1964 Alaska’s most popular city became ground zero for a 9.2 magnitude earthquake, the second largest ever recorded. The earthquake triggered underwater landslides, which in turn caused multiple tsunamis. Waves reached 170 feet above sea level, wiping out 30 city blocks and causing 311 million in damage. The devastation of the Great Alaska earthquake led to the creation of NOA National Tsunami Warning Center, which monitors for tsunami threats and, critically, issues early warnings.

I’ll give you one more. In 2007 and EF five tornado ripped the city of Greensburg, Kansas with an estimated width of 1.7 miles. The tornado was wider than the city itself. By the time the wind subsided, approximately 90% of the city had been leveled. The damage amount to two 50 million. Faced with the daunting task of having to rebuild from almost nothing, residents of Greensburg adopt–opted to reconstruct their city better than before. The new city contains the most LEED, Platinum certified green buildings per capita in the United States and is powered entirely by a 12.5 megawatt wind farm. By making this effort, Greensburg has not only become a model for wide scale use of renewable energy, they’ve also politically taken the wind that once destroyed their city and harnessed it for something good.

There are many other examples throughout history, including, of course, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 which began in a barn and eventually grew to consume 1/3 of the city. 17,450 buildings destroyed, 100,000 people left homeless, 200 million damage, yet every after rebuilding became, and may still be, one of the most fireproof cities in the US.

All this is to say that sometimes the world appears to be in really rough place, and sometimes we have incredibly difficult hands delt to us. There’s always something we can count on: with a little foresight and a whole lot of retrospection, we can recover in better ways and create more resilient places to live, work, and play when we come together as communities, putting aside our differences and building a brighter future, looking at the challenges ahead with collective eyes wide open.