Planning for the worst

What is the worst that can happen, and how do you plan for it? Personally, I think having a fatal accident and not dying is about the worst that can happen. Because, if you don’t die, you probably won’t want to be living. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda reminds me of that thought. I do have the Living Will testament to avoid heroic resuscitation procedures.

But for property, and the aftermath of a natural disaster such as Katrina, how do you plan for the worst? And Rita showed that all your planning may not be worth a hill of beans if several million others are caught in the same boat.

I have created a new category to collect some thoughts on the subject.

Rebuilding N’awlins

What a waste. Spend your $10 billion now or your $200 billion later. We can’t tell you how much later, maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe next decade, but it will be spent, in your lifetime.

I think they ought fill in the below sea-level part of the city with the rubble of the world trade center and any other rubbish that can be gathered and bring the entire city up to sea level, at least. Then cover the rubble with a layer of good silt and, voila, instant city. I don’t know how long you have to wait for everything to settle to provide a stable foundation. I think a decade or two should suffice. Basically, if you owned the land at the bottom of the rubble, you would own what is directly above it.

I heard someone suggest that the New New Orleans should build houses on stilts, like the beach front houses. Then you don’t have to fill anything in. Of course, the house would be a bit more expensive.

I would also suggest that every house be built with a trap door in the roof to provide easy egress from the attic.

I imagine that if all the houses were built on stilts, that the builders wouldn’t make sure the stilts were properly anchored and that all the houses would fall down after the ground got soaked by a heavy rain. I wonder if that counts as flood damage?

I also heard that some states are planning to go to court against the insurance companies, saying that the companies need to pay for damaged houses even if the damage was all flood and the homeowners didn’t have flood insurance. What a crock. If you want ensure that all your citizens have flood insurance then mandate it. Make it part of the property tax.

Don’t go crying that you didn’t think you needed flood insurance but now your house is gone and you want another one, but you aren’t willing to put up any money to buy the insurance. That’s what insurance is all about, everyone pays to cover against the possibility that a natural disaster will happen to some of them. It’s like a collective helping individual members. It’s socialism.

Personally, I wouldn’t let people build within a 100 year flood plain without their paying a hefty amount of insurance, annually. But it is up to them. IF they build, or buy, where history says floods will come, and they don’t want to contribute to a disaster contingency fund, then they can live with the results.

I remember when we bought a place in Texas, our lot had a creek at one end and the part of the property bordering the creek was in the 100-year flood plain, (it’s marked on the plat). Our mortgage company wanted us to get flood insurance before they would give us the mortgage. We were able to convince them that the actual structure, (house), was 100 yards from the flood plain marking and on a slight rise so we were 2-3 feet higher. (Plano Texas is very, very flat) We looked over the situation and decided not to go for the insurance. We took a chance. I don’t think that house will be flooded until the 1,000 year flood comes along, and that will wipe out most of Dallas-Fort Worth and our house would be the least of our worries.

I also don’t think anyone should be allowed to build within a mile of sea level. (Horizontally, on the map, not vertically. It would get too crowded in Colorado.) Although I realize that that isn’t too realistic. Fisherman, and others who live off the sea, will want to be nearby. But that’s it. No ocean-front beach houses for people working inland. No sea-breeze tourist traps. Let them walk a mile to the beach.

Late Breaking News

I have more pictures of Scotland! I developed the roll that was in my camera and found some more pictures of the Pollok Gardens and Park. So, I added them to the gallery with the other pictures. I thought I had more shots of the Gardens than originally published.

And the rest of the roll was pictures of my niece’s birthday party at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum. I created a new gallery for her called “Santa Faye” (her name is Faye).

An interesting sight

As I left home this morning, I saw a gray blanket of clouds stretching north and south and as far east as I could see. To the west they extended to within a few hundred yards of the mountains. Based on what I could see of the mountains, I guess the clouds were at 8000 feet. And the sun was shining brightly above the clouds so the upper parts ofthe mountains were in bright sunshine. As I drove down the Front Range, I kept seeing the bright rim of light between the clouds and their shadow on the mountains.

Pity I didn’t have my camera handy to snap pictures out the car window while driving at 75 MPH. I should have called Elaine and told her to check it out.

When I got down into the Springs, the cloud cover was breaking up and the crepuscular rays were shining through.

Not quite like the other day where the clouds were laying at 7000 feet and I left in the bright sunlight and drove down into the cloud cover.

Updated Scottish Trip

I have set up the Photo Galleries to segment the trip into different galleries per sector rather than trying to cram them all into one gallery. So, I have the: St Andrews-Touristy stuff, St Andrews- golf, London, Glasgow, Worldcon, and Scotland.

Next I will put all the links into an html page and link to it on the side bar. As I go through the different galleries, I see that I may want to distribute the pictures better so I don’t have 70 pictures in one section and only one section in the gallery.

Compassionate Conservatism

American Red Cross
The Red Cross notes that they are not in New Orleans after Katrina at the request of the state Homeland Security Department.

And there are other reports that people are not being allowed to leave New Orleans on foot. No resources going in and no people going out. That sounds compassionate and conservative.

I was listening to an interview on NPR the other day with the author of a book on the Mississippi 1927 flood (or maybe it was this one). On one of the bluffs outside a Mississipppi town, everyone, black and white, gathered high and dry to await rescue. When it came time to evacuate, the whites were taken and the blacks were left. Evidently, the plantation owners were afraid if the sharecroppers were evacuated they would never come back and they would lose their labor force.

I wonder if that sort of thought is going on now.

The Thoughts and Luminations of Jack Heneghan