[rechmbrs]

How about girls in bikinis with bagpipes...

I have seen so few female pipers and won't comment on how it is hard to them from the guys. Maybe my eyes being busy would obstruct the scratching sound.
RONC

[MarkJerling]

How about girls in bikinis with bagpipes...

Have you seen any real ones?

[bertwert]

I'm going to like one of your bagpipe posts, just this once, so don't get use to it.

Just that once, eh?

[tim60]

One common-sense response to this disaster that absolutely will not be followed: do not rebuild in areas that have been severely flooded. Scituate MA constructed wave barriers ("sea wall") after severe storm damage back in the 30's Since then the town has been severely damaged by storm waves then rebuilt more than a dozen times. After one devastation before the turn of the millennium, the cost of rebuilding & repair exceeded the fair-market value of the damaged structures. People say "we will not be defeated." Sounds to me more like "we will never learn." BTW: Following an historic flooding of the upper Mississippi River in the late 20th century. FEMA &/or the feds offered one small town this choice: we will pay you to build in a less flood-prone location OR we will pay you to rebuild where you were, but you will never again get federal flood insurance. The entire town relocated.

Discussion of possible solutions to this type of problem will get into politics real quick.

I can think of things I would like to say but that i as an outsider and the only effective solution, in the long term, needs to be one that all the people who have to live with it hammer out between them.

[RoxnDox]

it is much more than the twenty miles to your place
it is the mileage of every tributary that dumps into the river and all the acres that shed water into those waterways

our creek isn't much of a thing but in the mile and a half it takes to get there it has two tribs and drains several hundred acres

many years ago I was trying to explain to an exurbanite that the flats that ran 15-20 miles between the bluffs were cut by water
he wasn't having any part of it
one spring the river that was normally three quarters of a mile wide was as much as fifteen miles wide for a month
when he rebuilt it was on a berm twenty feet high

Guys, the terrain and stream characteristics that Racer has are completely different from anything in Texas, especially down there in the great flatness of the coastal plains. Flatland streams tend to be very "flashy", especially in areas where heavy downpours are common and there's not much land cover of the vegetation type. Human stuff like roads, parking lots, buildings, and stream channeling makes it all worse. Racer is up in the mountains, on a steep river. He's surrounded by miles and miles of thickly forested hills and mountains with thick soils that absorb our rains and retain much of the water in storage instead of runoff. So if he is satisfied with his choice on the flood insurance, he has at least based it on a much better situation than South Texas.

As it happens, I work with water in the USGS, many of our folks are down there right now assisting and gathering data for flood measurements and future predictions. Building in flood plains is one of the things I too, get worked up over, as well as the insurance, but in this case Racer is ok.

Jim

[tim60]

I own property on a river, about 2% of which is subject to flooding. The other 99% is 70 feet or more above the riverbank. When trying to get financing to buy the place the mortgage company wanted us to buy flood insurance, but we found it impossible to find an insurance company that would write a policy.

I ultimately told the bank we would take our business elsewhere if they didn't want it.

They gave in, and although the river floods a couple times a year, it has never threatened our home.

Think about it.

For the water to rise enough to be a problem, we would need an Ark, not flood insurance.

I got a solution for you.

Get a surveyor to come out and divide it into two properties, one that floods and has no significant improvements, and is small and cheap. The other on the highland, without bagpipers, with the improvements, and the one you link your loan to. Problem gone - its is insurable.

[rechmbrs]

Just that once, eh?

That's better but both are Photochopped. Look at this one's left hand. She's probably Italian anyway.

RONC

[MarkJerling]

Just that once, eh?

Oh, OK then.

[Racer X 69]

Guys, the terrain and stream characteristics that Racer has are completely different from anything in Texas, especially down there in the great flatness of the coastal plains. Flatland streams tend to be very "flashy", especially in areas where heavy downpours are common and there's not much land cover of the vegetation type. Human stuff like roads, parking lots, buildings, and stream channeling makes it all worse. Racer is up in the mountains, on a steep river. He's surrounded by miles and miles of thickly forested hills and mountains with thick soils that absorb our rains and retain much of the water in storage instead of runoff. So if he is satisfied with his choice on the flood insurance, he has at least based it on a much better situation than South Texas.

As it happens, I work with water in the USGS, many of our folks are down there right now assisting and gathering data for flood measurements and future predictions. Building in flood plains is one of the things I too, get worked up over, as well as the insurance, but in this case Racer is ok.

Jim

Thank you Jim.

Nice summary.

[Racer X 69]

I got a solution for you.

Get a surveyor to come out and divide it into two properties, one that floods and has no significant improvements, and is small and cheap. The other on the highland, without bagpipers, with the improvements, and the one you link your loan to. Problem gone - its is insurable.

Nice idea, but one tiny problem.

The zoning is R5, for Rural, 5 Acres. I would need at least 10 acres to do what you suggest.

Besides, I'm confident that considering the lay of the land and the historical flooding patterns, flooding here will only happen on such a cataclysmic scale that even an Ark will prove useless.

[savoche]

I just realized - if I add my K cameras together I get to K-9.

Woof.

[MarkJerling]

I just realized - if I add my K cameras together I get to K-9.

Woof.

Good dog.

[MarkJerling]

No, I'm not dyslexic.

[savoche]

No, I'm not dyslexic.

So you didn't sell your soul to Santa after all, then.

[MarkJerling]

So you didn't sell your soul to Santa after all, then.

No, although, I do own Fords!