My dad and I are buying a decent-size plot of land up in that area. Climate change profiteering here I come.
A lot of the homes and businesses that got leveled by Helene were in FEMA's flood zone X. FEMA's designation for areas with minimal flooding risk. It may be time to actually look a little closer at properties, particularly if you're thinking of buying it. Check county topo, how much drainage area flows across a property? Where is the rainfall going and what would it take to fill it up and reach residences and other improvements on a property? If you're getting a land survey prior to purchase, the surveyor should be able to answer these questions without much additional cost.
Floodplain management is my area of expertise. FEMA is going to be changing there flood mapping from distinct flood zones to risk mapping because the majority of the FEMA mapping is based on old data and modeling. The Zone X is the area that has a 0.2% chance of flooding on a yearly basis (500 year storm recurrence interval), but all of those statistics are out dated. We are seeing 25-year storm events occurring in the 5-10 year range (so going from 4% to 50% yearly chance). Everyone should absolutely be looking at topography/drainage before buying property. Even if you're in an urban area. If you're in a valley or low lying area guess what used to be there... and the storm sewers aren't designed for the rainfall we area seeing.
If my extended family wasn’t a thing this is where I would live. The place is beautiful. The people are nice. Winter sports are abundant. I’m a little weirded out that they call ice cream a “creamy.” Other than that I see no downsides.
I'm curious how many areas weren't flooded, but instead destroyed by mud slides. There's flooding for sure, but many of the videos I've seen have been of hillsides letting go due to severe ground saturation. In my area of northern Virginia, many neighborhoods and light commercial areas have rain gardens and water management catch basins (no idea what they're actually called) that I have little confidence in if we were to ever have rains like what Helene dropped. Plus, its not uncommon for debris blockages, causing spot flooding.
I watched another interview with Cleetus (on the Dale Jr youtube channel) today where he was recounting the devastation he saw, and he mentioned that 90% of the destruction he saw was because water was rushing down into valleys and then causing insane mudslides. "Imagine the worlds biggest bulldozer just pushed everything over" It wasn't flooding that was the immediate problem, it was all the mud and debris being pushed by that water.
Rain gardens, barrels, bio swales etc. are meant to help with smaller rainfall events and recharge groundwater tables. They mitigate rainfalls of ~1 in. Parts of North Carolina got 13-31 inches of rain from Helene. From an engineering/municipal planning perspective we'll never be able to design mitigation measures for the type of event that Helene represents, but our infrastructure does needs to be upgraded. And yeah, landslides are a huge concern with large rainfall events as well.
A lot of my work in the Norfolk/Vah Beach area was finding causes of flooding. Basically a very minimal topo survey of dozens of city blocks, locating high points, low points, ditches and any storm infrastructure. A huge majority of the time the answer was cleaning out the pipe network that was under performing because the pipes were blocked with sand. Sometimes it was corrugated metal pipes that got an end pinched closed because someone ran their car off the road and hit it.
I did not begin my career on the coast. So, when the boss handed me my first one of these jobs, I said something like, "because it's flat as a mashed possum and four feet above sea level, what do you expect?"
What was that story a few years back where the guy welded plate steel and added concrete to a bulldozer and just started mowing buildings down? Like for people that had wronged him or whatever? Did he put googly eyes on it? I think Doug Liman or some action director made a documentary movie about it.
I hate to interrupt all the hurricane Helene talk, but today is NATIONAL VODKA DAY We have in-laws visiting this weekend and just bought a fresh bottle. I also have a bunch of ginger beer. Moscow Mules, here I come! (sans pretty copper mugs) There's another hurricane in the gulf. I wonder how many hit the gulf coast before my home in Oregon becomes a destination for family. (Lol. Never.) Y'all have a wonderful Friday and be good. Because Santa, Jesus, and your momma are watching.
I have had the day off today (travel day on Sunday to go to an onsite), so have been going to town on some super spicy Caesars... spicy Clamato, some great hot sauce (thanks Hot Ones!), and some super spicy pickled beans. With a bunch of vodka, of course. One tasted like 2 tasted like half a dozen. I think I've now ingested enough salt for the next week... but totally worth it.
I've also been using some amazing locally produced vodka that is specially made for Caesars. https://paradigmspirits.com/collections/vodka/products/copy-of-a-midsummer-nights-gin Mission accomplished. "Et tu, Brute?" We took our deliciously smooth Latitude 42 Vodka and turned it up a notch! Our Julius Vodka's flavour profile is based off every Canadian's favourite first drink -- The Caesar. We distilled Julius with 3 types of spicy peppers, dill, tomatoes, garlic, and lemon.
My cancer friends wife (widow now I guess) came over last night for dinner and when I cook, I like to enjoy some wine. Apparently, I enjoyed a lot of wine last night and haven't accomplished jack shit today. Last thing I want right now is vodka.