During the flood that hit the condos, I was really high on my own bank. But we had a foot of water in the yards (I know, because I waded through it, and my little village was flooded with water. It wasn’t until the next day that I found out that the Grand River (really a misnomer) went over it’s banks and flooded everything in its floodplain.

Never seen that in thirty years! And that’s why we never want to see it again.

Melody

AND THEN (of course) it flooded, and I got to see my friend getting into a boat off the second floor of her condo.

We’re still working things out with FEMA, and my friend and I are still friends . . . goes to the strength of our frienship. But, she says, and I say, “Don’t build on a floodplain.”

Melody

Our furnace is now mounted to the ceiling rather than on the floor. Our air conditioning unit was moved to a higher ground area that was within a small portion of our property that did not flood. Our water softener is now setting higher.

We’ve got a company comping to install the latest and greatest in drainage systems to help detour the water out and away from the house.

We do have people that live in the county and on the banks of a river. Every time it rains they flood – but their house was purposely built to withstand the flooding.

I think there’s a big difference in preparing for ‘normal flooding’ and those that can be called “acts of God” or “natural disasters” – now with that in mind, I also live in an area called Tornado Alley – If we’re going on the same premise, does that mean people should not build or live here? For the sake of discussion of course

I love a good debate

OK, I apologize for shooting from the hip. But just for the sake of discussion, let’s say there were no federal flood insurance. Knowing that in a low-lying area, you’re going to get flooded periodically, would you still live where you do, or would you go to higher ground? Having just been flooded in June, did that change your thinking at all?

I live on a hill, so floods aren’t a problem — but we do get hurricanes here in Rhode Island from time to time. That goes with the territory. You deal with it by not living right on the coast, building housing that can stand up to wind, etc. When something unusual happens, well, that’s unexpected. But floods are NOT unexpected — by definition, they’re going to happen periodically, with a frequency that is usually pretty well known — e.g., you’ve got 50-year floods, 100-year floods, 500-year floods, etc. If a flood happens once every 30 years, that’s farmland — not suitable for residential use.

Urb

Where I live is considered a “flood plain” but the closest body of water to me is over 7 miles away.

Flash flooding can flood anyone, anywhere and at any time. I’m thankful my own lawmakers worked to have my area recognized as a flood plain – if not, we’d have had to settle for the best insurance coverage we could get that does NOT cover surface water flooding.

Because we were recognized as a flood plain, we were blessed enough to receive $4000 from FEMA which helped cover the furnace, water heater and air conditioning we lost as the result of flooding.

Old timers who live close said they’d not seen flooding like this in over 30 years.

Just because a place is considered a flood plain does not mean they live in a bowl on the banks of a porous levy. It means someone in your area who was elected to a position to protect you and act on your behalf did their job.

Granted, I don’t exactly agree with building back NOLA in the bowl – because, to me, that’s building in an ultra high risk zone, but there are obviously a great many places that are affected by flooding that you’d never suspect.

I for one appreciate the security net.

Urb