I’m pretty sure it’s an economics question. If you can only afford to buy somewhere that might get flooded, maybe you just really hope hard that it doesn’t happen.
Beyond that, there’s some weird stuff with flood insurance in the US. What started as a way to manage flood risk and encourage development away from high risk areas has lost its way on the risk-reduction part of the plan, and reform has been difficult
Your realtor told you to ignore flood damage in properties you were looking to buy? That’s unprofessional.
Eh, that might be true for some areas. Other areas, especially coastal areas, the flooding/storm ravaged home are pretty expensive because of the location.
If it is flooding every 7-10 years, I am guessing ignorance or very short shortsightedness.
They bought their mortgates, they knew what they were getting into. I say ‘hang em out to dry.’
To people who will never be without money, it only seems logical that whatever can be purchased is a simple exchange of a fungible resource. The idea that people might not put money at the center of all their decisions is alien.
“…we think the market ought to drive what people are putting in the houses, not the government.” – Mike Gilles, a former president of the Oklahoma State Home Builders Association
Shelter Requirements Resisted in Tornado Alley - The New York Times
Smokers are doing their country a huge favour by boosting tax revenue, dying early, and not drawing a pension, according to a report by the tobacco giant Philip Morris.
Tobacco company claims that smokers help the economy - PMC
Yeah we get the sirens and the flashing lights and everything.
It depends on how desperate you are. If it’s a choice of living in a flood plain, or living at a shelter, or sleeping rough, that’s not shortsighted, that’s doing the best you can.
Well then you would be living in an apartment, or renting. In which case you don’t even get a new house out of the deal.
We in the US just don’t have that “We’re all in the same polder” mentality. Also, seconded on Mindysan’s reply about economic geography.
I do know one person who was happy when a house they owned got destroyed by a blizzard. It was a really crappy house, and they weren’t living there anymore. That’s about the only situation where I can see it working out that way.
And if somehow this guy is right, then flood insurance is way too cheap. If, on balance, over time, the average insured person isn’t paying in as much as they get, that’s not insurance, it’s a pyramid scheme.
Indeed. I imagine these were not the people he was thinking about. I doubt he thinks of them, ever. The lowest economic class he considers is still one that has homes “redone”. I’m not sure how rich a person has to be to redo their home, but I can’t even see that place from here.
NFIP is about 24 billion in debt. Biggert-Waters tried to reform the NFIP, but is was blocked. There’s a lot of political pressure (including from home builders, who are making the problem worse) against fixing this problem.
I recently went thru Bolivar peninsula south of Houston and saw all the rebuilding going on after hurricane Ike basically destroyed the area back in 2008. I spent a lot of time as a kid down there and noticed that while on stilts, the ‘before’ houses were mostly constructed of 4x4 or 6x6 posts and the new houses are considerably beefier (looked like at least 8x8) and much taller.
I guess the benefits of being next to the beach outweigh the risks of having to rebuild every few years.
It’s been known since the days of the Roman Empire: when you pave a piece of land, you worsen the flood risk downhill from it. But fluid mechanics is a liberal hoax, so don’t listen to me or to Vitruvius.
People must enjoy being ruled by idiotic assholes.
See also: Florida.
Well, yes and no as far as New Orleans goes. Katrina is often framed as a “weather related disaster” but the storm itself isn’t what doomed the city- it was an engineering failure of the levee system. Unsurprisingly there seems to be less oversight and money directed toward critical infrastructure for poor neighborhoods than for rich neighborhoods.
They are called pinnipeds. Walruses, seals, sea lions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy is repeating the Big Oil talking points he was given, putting a positive spin on global catastrophic climate change.
So the US is ruled by the House of Apple?
