5 ms·
That's the same problem in the South East with tornadoes. They happen nearly every week (in summer) and can destroy neighborhoods. Yet we build lightweight fram
by athenot 8y ago
That's the same problem in the South East with tornadoes. They happen nearly every week (in summer) and can destroy neighborhoods. Yet we build lightweight framed houses and rely on insurance because the overall odds are low.
- danielvf 8y agoI agree with your general point. Though we are talking many, many orders of magnitude less damage from tornadoes in the Southeast when compared with California forrest fires. My state gets an average of 20 per year, and almost all of these hit uninhabited areas. If a tornado destroys four houses, it makes state news.
- js2 8y agoA better comparison is hurricane prone locations. After Hurricane Andrew in 1994, Florida conpletely revised its building codes to require homes to withstand a major hurricane. It’s possible to build a home on the beach to even withstand a catastrophic hurricane, but at possibly double the construction cost. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-florida-mexico-beach-house.amp.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-flor... I recall after there were bad fires in the Everglades many years ago there had been some work to build a foam that could be sprayed on a home to protect it in advance of an approaching fire. I think the person who came up with the idea was inspired by the amount of liquid diapers can hold. I wonder what came of that. Edit: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/jul/19/gel-inspired-by-diapers-may-be-firefighting-tool/ http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/jul/19/gel-inspired-by...
- Klathmon 8y agoI know some people in South Carolina whose beach house (on stilts and everything) withstood Irma just fine, however it had to be demolished because the beach had eroded enough that it was basically over the ocean now, and it was infeasible for them to dump enough sand there to have it be over dry land again. It's absolutely possible to build solid safe housing from most natural disasters, but it costs money, and often a lot of it.
- cortesoft 8y agoI mean, are we sure that isn’t the right choice? Depending on the difference in cost and probabilities, it might make economic sense to act this way.
- neilc 8y ago"Insurance policies for extreme weather-related losses -- especially for floods and for coastal wind damage associated with hurricanes -- are not priced to reflect the real risk ... as a result of government intervention in property insurance markets, through either rate regulation or direct government provision of subsidized insurance, private markets no longer generate price signals regarding the cost of living in severe-weather regions." https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2751&context=articles https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...
- pixl97 8y agoTornadoes are rather improbable at any one particular spot. Wildfire occurs at regular intervals.
- rconti 8y agoPretty much every wildfire I remember since I moved to CA has happened in a place that hasn't burned before. I'm not sure your theory holds up. In particular, because a truly burnt-out area is VERY unlikely to burn again any time soon.
- pixl97 8y agoThis is why we use data and not your memory.