Landowners in flood plain file lawsuit over flooding

[rawhide]

And didn't the Mayor of New Orleans get sentenced to prison for misuse of funds for such emergencies??

[carlfense]

How is this significantly different than people in the New Orleans area who live below sea level and lower than lake Pontchetrain (sp) crying and whining that the government owes them housing and relief after they get swamped by yet another hurricane? I won't even go into them being warned to get out, ignoring the warnings, and then needing to be rescued on our dime.

It isn't very different, IMO.

 

If you own property that is prone to flooding you shouldn't be too surprised when it floods.

[carlfense]

I believe the problem that the landowners had was that the Army Corps of Engineers moved so slowly to release the water from the reservoirs when they knew of all the snow that were in the mountains that would eventually melt and cause problems. They didn't start releasing the water until it was too late.

I'm going from memory here so this could be incorrect . . . but I thought that the flow rate was so incredible that even if the major reservoirs were completely empty they would be full in around a week. So in 2011 at least, it really wouldn't have mattered. That flooding lasted almost all summer.

[icedavis]

At yankton's Gavins Point Dam, the water levels (if I remember right) were already severely low prior. You can't just keep letting water go, if you need the power from it so they (at least from my understanding) were maintaining what they could. And that is not to mention what my first post notes (similar to what Carlfense is getting at), which is that the volume of water released at Gavins Point was enough to recycle the entire volume of the lake every 24 hours. There is no amount of preparation you can do in advance when you are pushing through an entire lake's worth of water in one day.

 

And don't get me started on the NO/Katrina stuff. So much fail and blame-shifting there across the board.

[commando]

Weren't some levees purposely breached by the corp of engineers to relieve stress on other levees around some cities? in those cases the farmers and other residents affected would surely be entitled to compensation whether they had flood insurance or not since the corp decided that they were expendable.

[commando]

I remember trying to buy a house that was in a flood plain. I backed the hell off when we got an insurance quote. I coulln't even imagine what crop insurance (and other insurances) would have looked like in those areas. Unfortunate? Yes. Are they still stupid? Also yes.

 

a couple years ago i was talking with a Romanian lawyer. he was shocked that Americans were stupid enough to allow people to build houses in tornado alley.

[carlfense]

Weren't some levees purposely breached by the corp of engineers to relieve stress on other levees around some cities? in those cases the farmers and other residents affected would surely be entitled to compensation whether they had flood insurance or not since the corp decided that they were expendable.

Not that I know of . . . but I'd be interested in reading about it if you find something.

[Junior]

How is this significantly different than people in the New Orleans area who live below sea level and lower than lake Pontchetrain (sp) crying and whining that the government owes them housing and relief after they get swamped by yet another hurricane? I won't even go into them being warned to get out, ignoring the warnings, and then needing to be rescued on our dime.

 

I think most people's unhappiness with Katrina was with the immediate response to the storm. Maybe some people are expecting a free house.... But I think most people really just thought the United States government would at least get supplies to the stranded.

[krc1995]

IMO, building in a floodzone is about the stupidest thing you could ever do with your money. Until it happened to me that is. When we were looking for a lot to build on(South Louisiana). not being a flood zone was primary criterion #1. After six monhs of looking we found the perfect lot. We bought it, made our house plans, got our builder. When we went to get our permits, we were told FEMA had rezoned and we are now in a flood zone. So we added about 30,000K in dirt work(and let me tell you that's a lot of dirt). Building has now stalled because of other reasons related to FEMA not exactly sure if our area will be in a floodzone . That's a government agency for you.

[commando]

Weren't some levees purposely breached by the corp of engineers to relieve stress on other levees around some cities? in those cases the farmers and other residents affected would surely be entitled to compensation whether they had flood insurance or not since the corp decided that they were expendable.

Not that I know of . . . but I'd be interested in reading about it if you find something.

 

found this on wiki. not sure if there is anything else out there but i am not the best at knowing how to find this stuff. was just going from memory when i made the first post

 

during record-breaking flooding in 2011, the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up a section of a Mississippi River levee with dynamite to open the New Madrid Floodway. The floodway was used for farming and had about 200 residents at the time. The levee at Bird's Point was designed to be removed if necessary so that Mississippi water levels would be lowered taking pressure off levees for miles upstream in more populated areas such as Cairo, IL and New Madrid, MO.

[commando]

IMO, building in a floodzone is about the stupidest thing you could ever do with your money. Until it happened to me that is. When we were looking for a lot to build on(South Louisiana). not being a flood zone was primary criterion #1. After six monhs of looking we found the perfect lot. We bought it, made our house plans, got our builder. When we went to get our permits, we were told FEMA had rezoned and we are now in a flood zone. So we added about 30,000K in dirt work(and let me tell you that's a lot of dirt). Building has now stalled because of other reasons related to FEMA not exactly sure if our area will be in a floodzone . That's a government agency for you.

 

yeah...the laws and regulations have constantly changed governing flood zones. my first house was above the hundred year flood plain when i built it....then it got re-zoned. Guess i was stupid for building there according to some people here. FWIW...the house has been there for about 30 years now and has never had water in it and the guy who bought it from me still lives there and loves it.

[krc1995]

IMO, building in a floodzone is about the stupidest thing you could ever do with your money. Until it happened to me that is. When we were looking for a lot to build on(South Louisiana). not being a flood zone was primary criterion #1. After six monhs of looking we found the perfect lot. We bought it, made our house plans, got our builder. When we went to get our permits, we were told FEMA had rezoned and we are now in a flood zone. So we added about 30,000K in dirt work(and let me tell you that's a lot of dirt). Building has now stalled because of other reasons related to FEMA not exactly sure if our area will be in a floodzone . That's a government agency for you.

 

yeah...the laws and regulations have constantly changed governing flood zones. my first house was above the hundred year flood plain when i built it....then it got re-zoned. Guess i was stupid for building there according to some people here. FWIW...the house has been there for about 30 years now and has never had water in it and the guy who bought it from me still lives there and loves it.

 

We did so much research before we purchased the lot, including talking to the city engineer(who coincidentally is our soon to be next door neighbor) it just seems like someone should have known. Now we have added so much dirt and we are up so high, that we will not have to pay for flood insurance BUT we look silly in comparison to our neighbor's houses. And then it might not even be in a flood zone. BTW this is a really nice area full of lawyers, accountants, etc so its not like it's cheapo land in the hood

[icedavis]

It's one thing to build in a 100-year floodzone and an entirely different when you are building in a location like New Orleans where it's nearly 10 feet below sea level in some areas and essentially a giant bowl. A 100 year flood zone is a relative desert compared to some of the locations these people along the river and New Orleans are building. Now granted, New Orleans has the levees which are designed to make it more of a 100-year-like zone but the fact of the matter is, the risk is far greater no matter what.

 

There is a reason your house for 30 years hasn't had water in it...that's because it's in a 100-year floodzone, where it should only flood there about 1 time every 100 years. That 100 years could be up in 98 years or 50 years or next year, And contrary to popular belief if it floods 1 time in the 10-years you have lived there doesn't mean that 1 in 100 year rating has been broken...something that people I heard from downstream from Yankton apparently didn't know as they were crying foul that it had only been 10 years and then started ranting about the Govt and global warming and such.

 

But I get what you are saying.

 

I wanted to echo a bit on what commando quoted too...I thought that I had heard they did intentionally breach levees along the river somewhere but I do know in our area it was more through additional release of water at the dams along the river which they knew the levees couldn't handle versus blowing them up. The reason I remember that is because people around Yankton were worried about their land (obviously) and how insurance apparently wasn't going to cover much if any of the damage because the government said to release the extra water which made it outside of mother nature...or something like that. Both sides argued for a long time and even many were demanding then that the government should pay if insurance wasn't going to. I don't remember the outcome.

[strigori]

I remember trying to buy a house that was in a flood plain. I backed the hell off when we got an insurance quote. I coulln't even imagine what crop insurance (and other insurances) would have looked like in those areas. Unfortunate? Yes. Are they still stupid? Also yes.

 

a couple years ago i was talking with a Romanian lawyer. he was shocked that Americans were stupid enough to allow people to build houses in tornado alley.

So, like several hundred thousand square miles? And area larger than his native country?

 

No where is safe from natural disasters, just which ones you are likely to get changes from where you live.

 

Seeing on the news that the levies on the Iowa side of the Missouri river do not meet standards. That is an issue, and one you can sue over.

 

I have always found it amusing with all the talk of "don't build in a flood plain" which is basically many to most cities. Cities grew at trade points, generally that required water for most of history. NOLA for instance is one of the oldest cities on this continent. Because short sighted politicians cut funding to manage, monitor and maintenance the dikes and levies, do not necessarily mean these old cities need to be abandoned.

[commando]

I remember trying to buy a house that was in a flood plain. I backed the hell off when we got an insurance quote. I coulln't even imagine what crop insurance (and other insurances) would have looked like in those areas. Unfortunate? Yes. Are they still stupid? Also yes.

 

a couple years ago i was talking with a Romanian lawyer. he was shocked that Americans were stupid enough to allow people to build houses in tornado alley.

So, like several hundred thousand square miles? And area larger than his native country?

 

No where is safe from natural disasters, just which ones you are likely to get changes from where you live.

 

 

 

lol...yeah. i didn't bother trying to argue with a lawyer. I didn't have time to bother wasting . But that is exactly what i thought when he said that.