Same News Different Day

Tragic Wild fires out west and floods making the national news again. What do they both have in common? People seem to loose everything, Tragically some people die. News reporters show crying people that lost everything and they all say the same thing. Lost it all and we will rebuild. Why would anyone rebuild in the same place if it prone to flooding and wild fires without making changes to how they rebuild?

If I were to rebuild in a place prone to fires, I wouldn't use asphalt or wood shingles. The wild fires send hot embers miles; roofs are the first thing to catch fire. Heard on the news where a home owner saved his house by hosing down the roof.

Why do people build homes that can't stand up to fires if they live in a place prone to wild fires?

Same with floods. If you are going to live in a flood plane, at least put a levy around your place. I know a guy in TH that has a house and building with a levy so high you can't see his roofs. He may need a boat to get to his house, but he's not worried about floods living in a flood plane that floods after a good rain.

About 6 years ago, I had 90 mph straight line winds. Put trees on 5 roofs. I repaired damage and cut over 20 trees down. No way will I allow trees to damage my properties again.

Is it me that thinks it's crazy to keep the madness up and rebuild in disaster zones without taking some kind of precautions. Who wants to fall victim to mother nature time and time again?
geo

Who said they weren't changing how they build?

Odds are the local municipality will change building codes, and/or the insurance company will stipulate that if you want insurance you have to build in a certain way.

Certainly some will not learn their lesson and build right back in the same way, but as has been said many many times, you can't fix stupid.

I sure hope they make changes and stop the burning and flooding. But what about the old homes, who is going to force them to change? Again Same News Different Day

These are not sane people were talking about! They are Californians. They expect the rest of the country to swoop in & rebuild their 1/2 million $ homes for them again. Then they will hire a landscaper to plant trees that are already higher than the roofs because that's why they moved there.

IT MAKES ME SICK; But until the US Government creates new, & sensible guidelines to receive funds for wildfires this will continue to happen!!!

Agree crazy people. Now I predict this will happen. Following a wild fire, it will rain and then the homes that didn't burn will have to deal with mud slides.

Einstein said it best, something like doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different outcome is the definition of INSANITY.

When the burning stop? Can't beat mother nature.

There are other factors at play too. Sometimes regulations won't let you mow off or disk down the dead stuff that feeds fires. And then sometimes an area NEVER flooded until someone redesigned the culverts or built a dam that didn't work right.

Lest we not forget, the floods in West Virginia are being called 1000 year floods. If that is the case, it would seem to be safe to rebuild.

As to California, that state should be another country. They come up with hostile restrictive laws and then foist them off on the rest of the country. If they were another country, at least they could keep their nutty ideas to themselves.

1/2 million? Those are just the shacks and dumps.

jimg.allentown,
None of my properties are in a flood plane.
But in Terre Haute, we had two 100 year floods 10 years apart. I don't think much out of anyone saying there are 100 year or 1000 year floods.

Floods happen, wild fires happen. When either happen why build back in the same place? I had trees come down on houses, then I took the rest of trees down anywhere close to buildings.

George, just curious: Have you ever been to Lake Isabella, CA? Or anywhere in Kern County? If you had, you might understand why folks want to live there. Not everybody wants to live in an Indiana suburb.

As for asphalt or wood shingles, most new construction in fire-prone areas of California seems to have tile roofing. And regardless of material, all roofs in CA are required to have a "class A" fire resistance rating.

I expect that the "1000 year" reference would describe the likelihood of flood occurrence. Nothing wrong with taking precautions.
Trees will come down. Not a matter of if, just when.
Probably a good high percentage of the land in the US is vulnerable to a flood. That does not make those areas uninhabitable. Probably most of the land east of the Mississippi river is prone to eventual flooding. But, most of that area is not considered to be in a flood plain. I know that flood insurance is not available to me in my area because it is not considered a flood plain. I did look into that.

All things considered, there is really no totally safe place to live. There will always be some threat. Hurricanes, tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, earthquake, flood, landslide, mudslide, plague of locusts, drought, and whatever else you can think of.

Much like you, I would not be inclined to rebuild in a flood prone area. Nor would I want to rebuild in an area prone to other disasters. But, sometimes, the odds are against a repeat and the rebuilder has no other choice.

What about Ann Hodges? She was hit by a meteorite...what are the odds of that? LOL

Poke here

Suggest checking the definition of a 10 or 100 or 1000 yr event. This is a pretty good write-up.
100 yr floods can happen back to back

Anybody can get a copy of the FEMA map for the locale, and see what the flood hazard is; none, or 500-year, or 100-year, of floodway. And if they dont know the difference, find out.

The news make it sound like the whole state of California is burning and the whole state of West Virginia is under water. A few years ago we had a major flood that left a good portion of several counties under water. We made the national news for several days. It was no where near as bad as the news made it sound. There were several families that lost everything but through local charities and donations they were able to move or in some cases rebuild.
I see it all the time where people build in some of the worst spots. With today's technology, you can minimize the likelihood of getting flooded but I saw a store flooded last year that was on a hill. A drainage culvert had plugged up and a downpour diverted through the store.
Every year there are fires in the west and floods somewhere else. Nearly every year there are tornadoes or hurricanes. Most years there are ice storms and blizzards. I can't think of anywhere that there isn't some sort of weather phenomenon,

So how long will it take to burn or flood all the homes not made to code, so new ones so there will be no more fires and floods to report on the news? BTW, there are some homes in TH that were built in a flood plane. They make the news every year too. About a quarter mile down the road, county dumps sand and has sand bags for people to shore up the levy too. No one ever fixes the holes in levy ground hogs make. Someday, there will be a very big breach. geo.

(quoted from post at 17:50:05 06/28/16) So how long will it take to burn or flood all the homes not made to code, so new ones so there will be no more fires and floods to report on the news? BTW, there are some homes in TH that were built in a flood plane. They make the news every year too. About a quarter mile down the road, county dumps sand and has sand bags for people to shore up the levy too. No one ever fixes the holes in levy ground hogs make. Someday, there will be a very big breach. geo.

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Even if levees are maintained the way they should be they only work for minor flooding. In the case of a major flood they either bottleneck the flood waters or push the water over on someone else. After the major flood that we had in 2011 the corp of engineers built, or actually repaired, an old levee east of town. In the event of a major flood they are trying to force runoff water from over 6000 square miles through a spot only 1/2 mile wide. If it was allowed to spread out some of it might soak into the ground. If there is a breach in the levee the force of the floodwater is much worse than a gradual rise.