Hurricane Relief

[daftandbarmy]

oops...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843461175335686296

 

[FSTO]

At what point does the government say, “We will not underwrite the rebuilding of residences in vulnerable zones. You can rebuild on your own dime but you are on your own for everything. We’ll offer you a onetime relocation to a more stable area but there will be no government support if you insist on living in a danger zone.”

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Where exactly is such "more stable area" in the US? The Midwest tornado alley? California's wildfire and earthquake zone?

You can't relocate all the Americans into Upstate New-York, Vermont and New Hampshire.

 

[FSTO]

All along the Mississippi the feds moved homes and even a couple of towns from flood prone areas to higher ground. It can be done.

There was a peninsula in Tampa Bay that was wiped out by Milton. It is a site that should never been developed and they are idiots if they are allowed to rebuild there.

 

[lenaitch]

All along the Mississippi the feds moved homes and even a couple of towns from flood prone areas to higher ground. It can be done.

There was a peninsula in Tampa Bay that was wiped out by Milton. It is a site that should never been developed and they are idiots if they are allowed to rebuild there.

Sometimes it's the government's own (in)action. I recall a lot of flooding in Texas a few years ago due to a hurricane (Houston, Dallas, don't recall) and it was pointed out that they have virtually no land use laws.

 

[FJAG]

At what point does the government say, “We will not underwrite the rebuilding of residences in vulnerable zones. You can rebuild on your own dime but you are on your own for everything. We’ll offer you a onetime relocation to a more stable area but there will be no government support if you insist on living in a danger zone.”

It's an interesting thing actually. Back when I was a kid in the 1950s it was a standing joke that people were being sold swamp lands in Florida when the population there was under 5 million. It has almost quintupled since then and one of the most developed areas are the intercoastal barrier islands that are essentially sand reefs offshore of much of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These would be inaccessible to anyone without a boat but for the massive spending by governments on numerous massive bridges that connect these long skinny islands with the mainland. In fairness one can say that government has made these lands accessible to the public in the first place. Initially land here was cheap but now is amongst the most expensive anywhere and one can see why. I've spent a lot of time down there and a lot of those places are simply gorgeous. For many retired folks its the prize earned after a lifetime of working hard.

This is not something as simple as moving a half dozen villages on the St Lawrence when the Seaway was built ... or even ones on the Mississippi. It would be politically and practically impossible. The easier solution is to hide ones' head in the sand and throw a few billion at the relief efforts when one of those hurricanes hits a major built up centre rather than the 2,400 folks living in Apalachicola. In the long run it spreads the risk and costs across the entire country. And essentially that's done as well for folks who live in areas where forest fires break out routinely and flooding along river valleys - the favourite place for cities to start to grow in the days of the steamship riverboats - occurs.

 

[FSTO]

^^
I guess I’m of a different mindset. I’ll visit the warm areas for a month or so (outside of hurricane season) but I’d never purchase. To me it’s just not worth the angst.

 

[lenaitch]

swamp lands in Florida

You just described pretty much all of the State. The highest elevation is 345' ASL and the average is only 100' - for now.

 

[FSTO]

I think owning a dump truck and a front end loader tractor is a license to print money in coastal Florida these days.

 

[daftandbarmy]

At what point does the government say, “We will not underwrite the rebuilding of residences in vulnerable zones. You can rebuild on your own dime but you are on your own for everything. We’ll offer you a onetime relocation to a more stable area but there will be no government support if you insist on living in a danger zone.”

Under those assumptions we should write off Calgary, which will likely be washed away by the Bow/Elbow rivers at some point in the (maybe not so distant) future ...

 

[FSTO]

Under those assumptions we should write off Calgary, which will likely be washed away by the Bow/Elbow rivers at some point in the (maybe not so distant) future ...

Now you're just being an ass . Most of the city is off the flood plain.
Winnipeg OTH did the job to mitigate the effects of the Red River. Originally, Selkirk (which is on higher ground and doesn't flood) was going to be the hub for the CPR but as per usual politics overtook practicality.

 

[Brad Sallows]

We're stuck with where some things were built up. Mistakes ought not be repeated when wiped away, though.