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| Flood Plain Building Requirements |
Here in Florida, technology has helped
people keep on top of disaster potentials for repeat flooding events. A flood zone mapping app created by MIT lets
people use Twitter, Facebook or other media to source information about
the depth of water and risks to specific areas, allowing people to avoid the
most dangerous regions.
Now that the waters have receded and
highways accessible again, people will begin the slow process of returning to
their homes. 6.3 million people were
evacuated in Florida, some of which will never be able to return to their homes.
Some of those who find their homes and
communities destroyed may decide to move away rather than face the risk of
another disaster.
Twelve
years after Hurricane Katrina, the population of New Orleans is still lower
than its pre-Katrina levels. Those who
do returned home found themselves forced to live in flood-prone areas because
they cannot afford to pay the higher rents in safer areas. This will be a factor in a growing economic inequality
occurring in many cities hit by Irma. Long
term effects from Irma could reshape how cities like Miami and others facing an
extreme number of occurrences of rising sea levels will rebuild after these
storms.
There are some very hard questions that
need to be asked as to which places should be returned to mother nature and
which to rebuild upon. In the past, things would just be rebuilt stronger,
without any consideration of the real problem of the area. With the threat of
climate change, it might be time to rethink that mindset, he says.
Down here in the Florida
Keys, these are questions that are having to be asked as well. Much of the problem down here is handled by
placing houses on 6 to 10 feet above the flood plain foundations on which the
houses are built. Looking around Key
West, there was minimal damage to this type of structures. Many of the trailer parks that were destroyed
by Irma are being replaced by this type of structures. All of this has a price tag, but if you are
going to stay in a flood plain, the price of this type of housing is higher,
but not as high as the increasing flood in
