Flooding Homes

[ysabetwordsmith]

Vast numbers of homes will be flooded due to climate change.   The Paris Agreement that America isn't even supporting?  It would reduce those numbers by a measly 10%.

If you live close to coastal water with a sloping margin, it would be prudent to move away from it.  Coasts with high cliffs are less prone to flooding but still subject to worsening storms.  If you do not live near a coast, don't move there.  If you plan to build a house, carefully research locations and choose somewhere not prone to whatever your local disasters are.

Comments

[imhilien]

New Zealand where I live is surrounded by ocean, but I've never felt the urge to live right on the coast. I would never feel safe.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's very sensible of you. At least New Zealand has mountains, though -- you might lose the rim, but not the whole country. Some other island nations are only a few meters above sea level. And artificial structures don't count, only natural land above water. They are justifiably worried that if the sea level rises, other nations will refuse to recognize them anymore.

Re: Well ...

[imhilien]

I do feel sorry for island nations that might get swamped. :(

A curious thing about some NZ coastal earthquakes - the seabed rises up! There was one a few years ago by a small town where the seabed rose four metres. A group of volunteers went to rescue lots of confused lobsters and other sealife and put them back in the ocean, which was now further out.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I do feel sorry for island nations that might get swamped. :( <<

Me too. I think that artificial islands would be one solution, and acquiring land elsewhere another; but established nations are violently opposed to both, and have the power to prevent either. Obliteration is a very credible threat.

Which is also a form of genocide.

>> A curious thing about some NZ coastal earthquakes - the seabed rises up! There was one a few years ago by a small town where the seabed rose four metres. A group of volunteers went to rescue lots of confused lobsters and other sealife and put them back in the ocean, which was now further out.<<

Yikes! I'm glad people responded though.

[witchka]

I live on a hill. I refuse not to live on a hill. (my town is half flood plain, it used to be a swamp according to the settler notes).

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I live on a hill. I refuse not to live on a hill.<<

Very sensible of you.

>> (my town is half flood plain, it used to be a swamp according to the settler notes).<<

Around here is reclaimed swampland. Nature disputes that claim several times a year.

[witchka]

Nature isn't bothering us that often but I'd say we've had... at least five or six major floods since I was born?

But it's given me very strong feelings about living on hills despite terrible knees that hate walking up them.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's not every year that the road floods so deep we can't get out in any direction, but it has happened. I'm counting times when the water goes way over the road. It doesn't take a lot of rain to make huge puddles in the field, and those can easily get deep enough to drown crops. But actually closing the road happens less often than just a foot or so of water over it.

[witchka]

We've been in drought like at least 60% of my life, I'd estimate? Varying in severity but rain isn't that common in any amount that is useful nevermind flooding. It's just when it rains, it often pours. Just two years ago I think we got flooded in again, I have loads of pictures of it. In some places it was 7+ feet deep. Whole houses went under in others. And I got yelled at for showing people their children were RUNNING ACROSS THE GODDAMN LAKE WHERE THE WATER BREAKS LIKE RAPIDS WHEN THE DAM IS RELEASING WATER UPSTREAM WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE DONT LET YOUR KIDS RUN AROUND TOWN IN A FLOOD

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> We've been in drought like at least 60% of my life, I'd estimate? Varying in severity but rain isn't that common in any amount that is useful nevermind flooding. It's just when it rains, it often pours. <<

Yeah, droughts are getting worse, but it's not just that. It's weather in general getting more extreme, harder to handle. Drought alternating with torrential rain is very bad; long gentle rains are better.

>> Just two years ago I think we got flooded in again, I have loads of pictures of it. In some places it was 7+ feet deep. Whole houses went under in others. And I got yelled at for showing people their children were RUNNING ACROSS THE GODDAMN LAKE WHERE THE WATER BREAKS LIKE RAPIDS WHEN THE DAM IS RELEASING WATER UPSTREAM WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE DONT LET YOUR KIDS RUN AROUND TOWN IN A FLOOD <<

I live not far from a dam. It has a sign listing the names of people who have died around it. Every so often, someone else walks past that sign to play on the dam, and dies. Up where my parents live, there's a river that sort of freezes in winter. Sort of, meaning the ice is routinely weak in places. People still walk over the river, fall through, and drown every few years.

It's just a Darwin award, you know? Some people are too stupid to survive. Water will kill you.

I wrote a poem on this topic, but it hasn't been published yet.

Re: Thoughts

[witchka]

Yeah, droughts are getting worse, but it's not just that. It's weather in general getting more extreme, harder to handle. Drought alternating with torrential rain is very bad; long gentle rains are better.

I agree with this, but I would just say for Australia the whole Droughts and Flooding rains is pretty normal at least inland and has been for centuries if not millennia. It's worse now, for sure, but it's a thing. It's even memorialised in one of the nations favourite poems.

And yes, people are exceedingly stupid.

Relatedly, Ned Kelly's sister drowned in our lake back in the day and she was an adult.

[siliconshaman]

That said, around 80% of people in the Western World live in potential flood areas. I mean, where I live is 30 miles from the coast... and half the town is at risk because it's on a tributary to a major river estuary, which if the sea levels rise, is going to back up.

Which is another thing they don't talk about... the tidal zone on river estuaries is going to stretch a loooong way back in the future, which means a lot of irrigation is going to have to be changed. Not to mention sewage & drainage systems will periodically back up as the tide comes in. Hell, there will be urban areas flooding, because the water is coming up through the drains! And it'll be salt water too, which has a whole range of further complications like 'rotting' concrete and rusting steel rebar.

Honestly... living below 100m elevation is beginning to look like a bad bet.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> That said, around 80% of people in the Western World live in potential flood areas.<<

Including almost all the major cities.

>> I mean, where I live is 30 miles from the coast... and half the town is at risk because it's on a tributary to a major river estuary, which if the sea levels rise, is going to back up. <<

Yikes.

>> Which is another thing they don't talk about... the tidal zone on river estuaries is going to stretch a loooong way back in the future, which means a lot of irrigation is going to have to be changed.<<

Most people don't think about things like that, alas. On the bright side, it'll follow much the same pattern as tsunami hazards, so if you can find a tsunami map for your area, just imagine the red zone says "do not live or work here."

If you look at maps of how the coastlines will change, that's another place to see estuary spread.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/here-s-how-rising-seas-could-swallow-these-coastal-cities-ncna872466

https://www.24horas.cl/tendencias/salud-bienestar/article921976.ece/ALTERNATES/w1024h768/Efectos%20en%20Am%C3%A9rica%20del%20Norte

https://www.deviantart.com/jaysimons/art/British-Isles-in-2100-315945336

https://qz.com/1336118/americans-best-option-in-the-face-of-climate-change-is-to-retreat-from-the-coasts/

>> Not to mention sewage & drainage systems will periodically back up as the tide comes in. Hell, there will be urban areas flooding, because the water is coming up through the drains! And it'll be salt water too, which has a whole range of further complications like 'rotting' concrete and rusting steel rebar.<<

Not to mention the spread of diseases.

>>Honestly... living below 100m elevation is beginning to look like a bad bet.<<

Clue.

[sporky_rat]

I live in South Mississippi.

When the waters rise, we'll be back to being on boats.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Elizabeth Moon wrote about that in an anthology called Lunar Activity. People had built structures that unmoored when the water rose. She called them "floatholes."

Alas....

[erulisse]

I've been thinking about this a lot. As much as I've been liking Houston, I don't think it's a good idea to settle here permanently. It's already a crapshoot pretty much every time it rains heavily as to whether there will be actual flooding. We live in an older neighborhood with good drainage and our house is set far enough back from the street on enough of a slope that the house itself is unlikely to flood (it didn't during Harvey and most of our neighbors were also okay) but the streets around here do fill with water pretty badly.

It's sad because this is a lovely and vibrant city with a lot of great things going for it and if the situation were different I'd be more than happy to settle here.

Re: Alas....

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've been thinking about this a lot. As much as I've been liking Houston, I don't think it's a good idea to settle here permanently. <<

A wise observation, if sad.

>> It's already a crapshoot pretty much every time it rains heavily as to whether there will be actual flooding. <<

The infrastructure is just not designed for the amount of use it's getting now.

I was just riding through a nearby town and noticed that several very large apartment or office buildings had been erected. The city already has overburdened substrate -- every big rain not only floods the underpasses but also often backs up the sewers. So they've added another concentrated mass of people who will need toilets and other running water and so on, but there's no way to upgrade the whole underpinnings of the city. It all goes down the same old pipes.

I imagine the engineers in college a few blocks away want to tear their hair out every time they drive by. :(

>> We live in an older neighborhood with good drainage and our house is set far enough back from the street on enough of a slope that the house itself is unlikely to flood (it didn't during Harvey and most of our neighbors were also okay) but the streets around here do fill with water pretty badly. <<

That ought to help you sell the place. It will probably be easier to do now than later after it's been hammered by more storms.

>> It's sad because this is a lovely and vibrant city with a lot of great things going for it and if the situation were different I'd be more than happy to settle here.<<

I have heard that it's very nice. I am not personally fond of Texas, although it was much less objectionable than Nevada. I wish that the desert cities were better designed so people could live there safely. I suspect they will fall one by one to habitat forecloseure.