Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- From: JosephKK <quiettechblue@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:23:00 -0700
On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:44:17 GMT, Jonathan Kirwan
<jkirwan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:33:09 -0700, Don Bowey <dbowey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 6/15/08 5:29 AM, in article
48550b37$0$56771$edfadb0f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Frithiof Andreas Jensen"
<frithiof.jensen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en
meddelelse news:kv2854t6oqdhtjgrb3p0j1ss4qvbarsvsd@xxxxxxxxxx
Why, after all the flooding that regularly occurs in Iowa, haven't
they built such a system?
They probably have and it (probably) basically just postponed the flooding
by holding the water intil the levee broke and made the flooding larger ;-)
In England years back, the village I lived in, Sutton Courtenay was
flooded - or rater the NEW houses were. The 17'th century houses strangely
enuff all seemed to be build on small areas of high ground, including the
pub(s)!
I.O.W: If you build on a flood plain, build your house on pillars!
That is a requirement, at least, in the county in which I reside. But what
happens, is that idiots get a permit and build on a Pillar-like structure.
After the final inspection of their home, they enclose the lower area and
finish it for living space. Such a house, about 8 properties downstream
from me, had their illegally enclosed lower area wiped out by high water
about four years ago. They could not believe the loss wasn't covered by
insurance.
My house is several feet above the 500 ft. flood-plain and I've seen the
river flow across the downstream corner of the lot to flow through the
neighbor's garage, filling a low basin in front of our properties for about
a 5 foot depth.
Because the cities of Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA allow land creation
along parts of the Columbia river for development of condos, etc., reducing
the river's width, therefore it's depth as water backs-up, I'm sure even my
property (the Washougal River feeds the Columbia river) will be at risk in
the future. Obviously, even the people who *should* know better than to
Permit such property development, do not know know, or are paid-off well
enough to not care.
This also puts me in mind of San Francisco. Draw a line down the San
Andreas fault, and then plot the area's schools, hospitals, Firehouses, etc.
And at least Tillamook County in Oregon, has Permitted building of high
income homes on sand dunes, which are unstable. When one of the
developments was eroding away the homeowners expected the government to save
their homes.
There is no shortage of idiots who will enable natural events to create
disaster. (hint - do we have a global warming problem?)
You might be referring to "The Capes," in Oregon's Tillamook County,
which was an upscale subdivision built on top of a 200-foot cliff
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The local county officials persisted
in denying development permits for some time, or otherwise insisted on
60-foot set-backs for safety as far back as in 1982, I think. However,
the developers claimed they had met all regulations in effect at the
time and insisted on proceeding with their plans without the setbacks
urged by county officials. Eventually, this unresolved issue became a
lawsuit by the developers against the county, designed to force the
county to issue the permits. The county decided not to pursue the
case, after a time, and chose to issue the permits rather than
continue to fight in court, issuing the permits in 1991. (I also
heard reporters interviewing staff at the county saying that the
reason was simply that their county budget was quite small and wasn't
able to fund what they expected to be a serious drag-out court
battle.)
Early in 1998, wave erosion at the base of the cliff enhanced by "El
Niño" storms had progressed to the point where landsliding had begun
to work its way into the development. Expensive homes in this 7 year
old subdivision were increasingly threatened, and spawned plans to
construct a seawall to prevent further erosion and possible future
disaster. But these plans ran directly afoul of Oregon's strict beach
protection laws. The developers argued 'so what' and the State of
Oregon argued they cannot use this excuse to violate still other laws
only in order to protect their perceived investments. It all went to
court, again. This time with the State of Oregon involved.
In February that year, some 32 townhomes closest to the slide area
were ordered evacuated. As beach erosion slowed in March, owners of
28 homes were allowed to reoccupy their properties and by late August
of 1998, four homes in the gated development had been condemned and
more than two dozen were considered to be in danger.
Residents filed a $10 million lawsuit against the developers,
designers, builders and sellers of "The Capes".
In any case, what's a small county to do when it gets sued by "big
city" developers with serious dollars behind them? Small counties
like Tillamook with very small budgets (because they don't already
have the large tax bases from large scale development, yet) have very
little real control when it comes to large scale development money,
lacking resources to deal with them as peers.
It's not simple figuring out who should have done what, when, and who
should pay in cases like this. I certainly do NOT enjoy the idea of
Oregon or USA tax payers, who are as a group decidedly less wealthy
than the purchasers and who are essentially innocent and ignorant
bystanders in this entire debacle, being asked to pony up to pay for
the greed-driven mistakes by the developers or the carefree stupidity
of the wealthy buyers who all should have known better.
Yet it happens time and time again. I say slaughter those wealthy
buyers and their families rather than bail them out. Do it a few
times and maybe they will look before they leap.
Yet the.
county was arguably complicit (I consider it a weak argument, but one
that needs serious consideration.) The county officials did make
what in 20/20 hindsight now appears to have been wise suggestions --
but they weren't heeded and they eventually did cave in (perhaps from
sheer exhaustion, though perhaps we will never really know for sure
now.)
Is this the case you were referring to?
Jon
- References:
- Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- From: Jim Thompson
- Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- From: Frithiof Andreas Jensen
- Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- From: Don Bowey
- Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- From: Jonathan Kirwan
- Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- Prev by Date: Re: China Drills for Oil in Gulf
- Next by Date: Re: Attorney generals trying to shut down usenet?
- Previous by thread: Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- Next by thread: Re: Anyone from Iowa lurking here?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
