Storm-ravaged Galveston faces 'disaster tourism' dilemma

GALVESTON, Texas -- Janet Oostenbrink came to see the sights. Actually, the Canadian was on Galveston's seawall to see what sites were no longer there.

"It's amazing," said Oostenbrink, who was visiting from Edmonton, Alberta. "You talk about the power of the ocean, and you see that there is nothing you can do to stand against it."

She didn't come to the United States just to see what destruction Ike had brought to Galveston. She was visiting fellow Canadian Beth Wiebe in Spring, and the two were curious just what was left of Galveston. They had seen plenty of images on TV, but standing on the seawall and seeing what was left of Murdoch's Pier and the damage to the Flagship Hotel they decided the television images didn't do the storm justice.

"We just didn't realize it impacted this area," Wiebe said. "It is so different from what we have in Spring."

The Canadian women are not the only tourists who are making trips to the island to see what was destroyed, what was damaged and what survived Ike. They also wouldn't be the first disaster tourists.

From the site of the World Trade Center towers in New York to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans to far off places such as Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, communities that have endured horrible destruction are attractions for many visitors.

Some make trips out of curiosity. Others come to see history firsthand. For many, it's an educational experience.

But is there a line between insensitive voyeurism and education?

"For a year, I refused to show the destruction, but people started asking so we had to show the areas," said Javier Cuellar, owner of Dixie International Tours in New Orleans. "It's part of our history now. Tourists now don't want to see the destruction; they want to see the recovery of the area and how we are rebuilding."

For a while, though, destruction was the tourism attraction in the Crescent City.

"Some companies almost immediately they were taking people to the 9th Ward, places that were so bad," said Cuellar, who has been in the touring business in New Orleans for 20 years.