Tangentially related, I have a chum who used to work for the UK's Environment Agency. As some may have noticed, the UK seems to be suffering flooding more than

Tangentially related, I have a chum who used to work for the UK's Environment Agency. As some may have noticed, the UK seems to be suffering flooding more than it used to. Part of his job was to speak at town halls and village church halls and the like during and after flooding. He'd take a backup man with him whose job was to sit in the car outside with the engine running. So he'd turn up at a newly built settlement named "Little Flodington" or some other such. He'd look at the unforgiving rocky hills surrounding it, and at the river running through the middle of it. He'd check the history to find that for the last thousand years, the only recorded usage of the land was grazing animals and growing crops that can handle a lot of water. No buildings more elaborate than temporary shepherd huts. He'd open up the department's flood-risk maps from the last fifty years and find he was standing in the middle of a big blue section. He'd then field questions along the lines of "Why didn't you stop my house being flooded?" and "How are you going to stop it happening again?" with answers that were not well-received. "You bought a new house on a flood-plain. We're not going to stop it happening again." He's since moved on up to work for a local council's environment dept. A council with less flooding.