“Organization Without Any Organization”

This chapter asks how people in different parts of Halifax and its society perceived order immediately after the explosion, how they created order for themselves, and how the order they sought differed. It first recounts the Halifax explosion before proceeding with a discussion of the perspectives of three different kinds of actors and especially their perceptions of order and disorder: relief workers, relief managers, and survivors. It shows that the disaster generated differing ideas about and experiences of order and disorder. Haligonians created and understood order and disorder in their ruined city in ways that were often in conflict. The chapter also reveals how individuals built on their preexisting ties of solidarity, but they also forged new bonds and connections.