In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, an oddly poignant article in the Onion said it well:
"Gradually comprehending that this sort of thing is now just a fact of life, citizens all across America stared blankly at images of destroyed homes, major cities paralyzed by flooding, and ravaged communities covered in debris, and finally acknowledged that this, apparently, is now a regular part of the human experience."
Images of the devastation wrought by Sandy this week are so stunning because the damage wrought was so sudden and still so thorough. But there was something very familiar to us about those tragic husks of buildings and rubble-strewn streets.
There are many parts of St. Louis that have fallen into ruin since the 1960s and still look startlingly like a fresh disaster has struck.
Check out these images and see if you can tell which are of damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and which ones are of North St. Louis, as it exists every day. Answers are on the next page.
Photos of Hurricane Sandy come from Instagram. All but one of the photos of St. Louis come from Chris Naffziger's architecture blog St. Louis Patina.
