California

Frank Fusco

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Saw on the news this a.m. that both (more) mudslides and forest fires are occurring simultaneously in different parts of the state.
And, folks just go back to the spots that flush down the hillsides or burn away. I don't understand it.
 
Saw on the news this a.m. that both (more) mudslides and forest fires are occurring simultaneously in different parts of the state.
And, folks just go back to the spots that flush down the hillsides or burn away. I don't understand it.
The situation with the mudslides is that the homes in those canyons have been there for a long time. When the fires came last year, the fire department was able to control the fires and save the homes. So those people just went back to their homes. (edit note: The reason for the mudslides is that the fire destroyed the brush that would normally hold the soil and prevent it from eroding.)

I believe the original reason those people built there was that the land was inexpensive (long ago). Most of them are not rich people - they have little choice but to return to their homes. But in any case, I think most of them like the rural atmosphere of the canyons.

Getting fire and flood insurance on those homes is a challenge, I imagine.

Mike
 
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And they say we have no weather here. True, true. We get surprised by earthquakes and when you grow up with it, you just ignore them. But to live where you know a hurricane is coming . . . , for days in advance . . . , and to still sit there . . . or to rebuild a multi-million dollar home on the same spot where your last one just slid into the water at Malibu . . . . I don't get that.

But California, in an effort to maintain it's status as the wackiest state in the nation (and its getting harder every year) decided to have tornadoes again:

Flash.jpg

This is a few blocks from my house. It picked up a tractor trailer, tossed it onto the freeway and knocked some choo-choo cars off the track. If you can sit through the opening commercial, there is some decent video here:
http://www.pe.com/video/index.html?nvid=248096
 
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Saw on the news this a.m. that both (more) mudslides and forest fires are occurring simultaneously in different parts of the state.
And, folks just go back to the spots that flush down the hillsides or burn away. I don't understand it.

Frank,

Have you ever been to Pompeii? It was a pretty good place to live for about 800 years...

"By the 1st century, Pompeii was one of a number of towns located around the base of Mount Vesuvius. The area had a substantial population which grew prosperous from the region's renowned agricultural fertility."

Then they had one not so pleasant day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pompeii_the_last_day_1.jpg

But guess what? If you go there now, there are lots of houses... ;) Must be something about human nature... ;)

Here's what happened in 1944:

http://www.solcomhouse.com/Vesuvius1944copy.jpg


Thanks,

Bill
 
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I expected some hits for that post. Many of the homes I see going down the muddy hillsides are million dollar affairs. And, often, the owners say they will rebuild on the same hill again.
Yes, others do similar wacky things. My county has about 100 nice homes in the White River flood plain. They recently got flooded out and, as far as I know, all are rebuilding and will move back in. And they don't have insurance.
Weather is inescapable, but why tempt disaster? Oh, well. I'm going to die asking "why".
 
Well... I guess that the answer to that ¿why? that you are looking for is not a simple answer.

My guess is that there is not enough thinking on the long run or that historic memory is so short that nobody cares. Or even simpler than that, mankind is stupid.

In Spain some years ago there were around 15 people drowned while they were sleeping on their tents and caravans on a camping site.
What happened was that the camping had been built on an dry watercourse.
The stupid thing is that they got all the permits to build it there and they knew it was watercourse but as it had been dry for about 60 years nobody cared.
Only the oldest people of the village remembered seeing water coming all of a sudden on a sunny day, that water came from some mountains about 20miles away from it where there had been a heavy storm, but... who listen to old people nowadays?

What happened was that there was another strong storm on those mountains at night, and all of a sudden a wall of water and debris came down roaring and wiped away the whole site while people where sleeping in their tents and caravans. But of course... who could have imagined that:dunno:

I let you put your own comments...
 
I find these questions interesting...it true that it seems rather dumb to rebuild in an area that has the problems already listed. Has anyone looked at world conditions today we have wind, flood. earthquake etc etc happening more often & worse in many cases & in places where they haven't happened before than we have had in the past. So who has the crystal ball that can tell us where to live & be sure we won't have any of these problems? Hello!!!!:eek::):D:wave:
 
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