In the Pacific North West..... Here's why: The Heppner Flash Flood - In 1903, heavy rains over the Willow Creek watershed sent runoff downstream, killing 247. The tributary to the Columbia River is now dammed upstream of Heppner, Oregon forming Willow Creek Lake. The Wellington Avalanche - In 1910, heavy winter snowfall kept crews from clearing tracks through the Cascades and two passenger trains destined for Puget Sound became stranded, Feb.23rd. Crews were unable to reach the trains and on Feb. 28th, a rain producing warm front triggered an avalanche which derailing the two trains. The Vanport Flood - In 1948, a section of levee on the Columbia River failed flooding housing on the then North edge of Portland, Oregon killing 85. The Columbus Day Storm - October 1962, the tail end of Typhoon Freda whipped through the PNW bringing winds of 50 to 150 MPH destroying homes and snapping trees as if they were twigs. I watched from our Beaverton home as the roof of neighboring homes sailed through the air, exploding as they impacted other homes in the development my parents lived in. The rains cause flooding and extensive damage to low lying areas. The winds were even more intense along the coast where the town of Newport recorded winds of 138 MPH. People lost power for weeks. 38 people died. Mount Saint Helens - Erupted May 18, 1980 killing 57 people. Imagine if this happened to Mount Hood or Mount Rainer?
Was in 1936 you could row a boat from Vicksburg to Shreveport? (Literally one side of the state to the next)
The biggest killers, causing the most damage, have been hurricanes... But, every area of the country has its risks for disaster.
I always hated those tornadoes growing up in Wis, MN and MI. Get up in the morning and go hunt in the back fields for our things. I have seen many a housing development wiped out by tornadoes and flodds.
Let's see.... there was Hurricane Bertha, Fran, Dennis x 2, Ed, Floyd, and a bunch of other less memorable storms. Then there was Y2K, and my concern that others might get stupid. Some of it has even been economic. Remember that .22 ammo shortage and primer famine? No effect here. But mostly it's how I grew up, we were in a constant state of preparedness for extended primitive camping.
Something those in the South East and Gulf States can count on every Late Summer and Fall. Then there are the Northeasters in the Mid-East coast and New England States in the Winter months. Heavy snows and ice storms, high winds, floods, tornados, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, landslides, avalanches, the Earth is in a constant state of flux and we are just passengers along for the ride.
Something I find common in very old coastal homes is painted concrete porch floors, functional dormer windows and shutters, and small, easily isolated sleeping quarters. These homes didn't have air conditioning, but were comfortable in summer because the hot air could get out the high dormer windows. The shutters kept the cool night air inside for most of the day, and the evening was spent on the wide shady porch, which was easily swept of sand or mud tracked in by dogs and children. I like having air conditioning, but I still have functional dormers in the roof, big porches, and heavy drapes on all the windows. We've done just fine without power in all seasons, and have come to accept hurricanes and occasional flooding as part of the normal weather cycle on the beach.
What's strange to me is that knowing that these weather events are regular ,people still build as though they are an anomaly. As old as some technologies are, people insist on traditional stick junk, building in risky areas. What happened to THINKING?
Folks are a lot more "Mobile" these days, as opposed to 50 years ago... So they do NOT know the area, that they move into, or the Wx History, and Disaster History, unless they actually do some research, and Due Diligence... and most are to lazy to do that, or it doesn't even cross their minds... When moving out here, i spent 20 summers here, before the move, and I still had "Little Idea" about what happens in the winter... After 3 winters I had a much better appreciation for the area, and it's Wx....
@arleigh Yep, it is a bit strange, but as @BTPost says mobility is much higher these days. That said the research is no longer dependent on being in the area for long enough to suss out the area's potential for disasters. That sort of info, climate, Wx, historical events and so forth are as near to hand as the web. Those that caught by surprise somehow simply failed to do the due diligence. (Thinking seems to be passe' for the new breed and snowflake types.)
Well arleigh, back in college I took a class called, Personal Perspectives of Geography, that addressed your, no doubt rhetorical, question. Six week long story, short. We humans have, to a greater or lesser degree, a built in capability to not question whether we live in a safe local. Basically, it just can't happen to me! Delusional, of course, it appeared that the ability to delude ones self was little related to intellect! That's about all I remember, it was 48 years ago after all! I'm always all proud of myself that I live in the PNW, on the side of Alameda ridge in PDX OR, perhaps 500' above and two miles from the Columbia river! Truth be told, I was just born in Portland and live here out of habit. OTOH you couldn't pay me enough to live in tornado alley or the below sea level, soup bowl that is New Orleans! Not all skittles and beer here either, my dad helped pull bodies out of the Vanport Flood. I lived through the Columbus Day storm, that was a mess! The house next door was completely destroyed, and no power to our house for eight days! And, of course, Mt St Helens.
I lived in the mountains a while 20 = YEARS . and was always interested in meeting people and oft time spent time in the local coffee shop and like here we talked about every thing . When a new person came along looking for info about buying a house /cabin I tried to give them some guidance, no one else would provide . 1. rent a hotel room in the winter time and do your house shopping especially after a snow storm. 2. take a good look a how the snow lays on the north facing homes verses south facing, and consider seriously the attitude of the sun during the winter . This will determine how much snow your going to be shoveling and the ice build up in your walk ways . 3. Look at how the roof terminates over the walk ways . poor designs. consider the lay of the land and run off that may or may not fill up your front yard and lock up your garage door or front door. 4. consider the winter ski traffic and your proximity to the slopes and skiers using your drive way to park in . 5. work . 100 jobs and 20,000 people do the math. 6. your skills driving in mountains an snow may be passable but the visitors that come here leave a lot to be desired. 7 most people do not think past the road they can see , here you must think 5 miles ahead or more . 8. power outages can happen any time , summer or winter , either lightening or earth quake or snow. 9 . have water filters on your home . one whole house filter for sand and grit, to sane the valves in your system, and one at the faucet you drink water from. 10 . the cost of cooling is not an issue so much as the cost of heating . if the trees block all sunlight during the winter ,heating will be significant. 11. learn how to install your own chains. 4 wheel drive does not make what you have a slot car. 12. learn to store a months worth of food . and use snow for refrigeration when the power is out. I don't say this stuff to discourage you but that you take the patience to learn how to cope .
I like the observations arleigh shared on mountain living. I'd say the learning curve here on the Coast is not quite as steep. My observations from almost 40 years as a flat-lander: Inland areas tend to flood up to a week after a storm. Coastal rivers and creeks allow all our excess rainfall to leave with the tide. When a storm surge is expected it's not a bad idea to tie your boat to a tree, even if it's on a trailer. Ask the old timers what roads were open the last time there was a BIG rain. Check the elevation of the oldest cemeteries in the area. You want your house at least that high. Don't laugh at the guy with the second story double wide. He'll be grilling on his deck while you're dragging flood damaged appliances to the curb. If you live in a beach front home and see a father and son kicking around in the sand next to your house, you might not want to know what they are looking for. The lady from New Jersey got very pale when I showed her the double yellow line that had marked the second road that I remembered at the beach. This one would have run through her living room. The first one was well out under the surf. I have pictures...from a wiser time... there were no houses then. Park your car on the bridge. Be prepared to grill everything in your freezer. Neighborhood party! If you have a second or third row from the beach home... be patient, it'll be beach front property soon enough.
Why do we prep? Because we like life being somewhat easy no matter the circumstances. We don't dash to the store when a hurricane is coming, and are only slightly put out by starting the genny during an outage. We do it to maintain lifestyle, not because of NK or hurricanes or earthquakes. We refuse to prep to live in a cave or a tent or like the 1700's, though we may someday have to.
I gots boats and I gots climbing gear so if I can't float there, I'll climb. I thought I'd end my comment with this single statement then realized my rational behind it wasn't sarcasm but rather a life-time spent prepping. I am not a horder, but I do maintain enough supplies to live comfortably for a year or so but that is of little or no relevance to me; I could walk away, fly away, drive away, motorcycle away or take a horse or I can just stay right here and restructure for long term. I am not invested in my stuff and own absolutely nothing that I am not totally prepared to walk away from. You see, the single most valuable thing I have managed to acquire through a life-time of prepping hasn't been "stuff", it has been skills and mental as well as physical conditioning. In my 22,213 days on this plane, I have managed to learn numerous trades both as an advocation and more primitive, as a means of surviving. I managed a working trade in carpentry, welding, ship building, navigation, salvaging, disaster relief and rescue, Masonry, I have drilled wells, splinted a broken leg and arm (my own), worked underwater in pretty much everything from sewage treatment plants to five different Oceans raising ships or welding, forensic diving for most of the alphabet agencies, salvagemaster for several world-wide marine salvage companies, Built and painted fences, loaded hay, work as a farm laborer and lumberman, gunsmithing as a life-long hobby, reloading, demolition work in marine environments and some time as a powder monkey at a quarry in Kentucky, communications and data cable, power transmission cables, and sub-aqueous pipelines, I have worked as a framer, sheet metal worker, railroad trackman (Gandy-dancer), chef and bartender, treasure hunter and yes, BT, I have sort of worked as a pirate down in Antigua. I stole one of our company's tugs that had been seized by the harbormaster in St. Johns, because the permitted crew got pissed off and got a plane, leaving the Manatee there, and flew home to Port of Spain, Trinidad. My point is that I assign no real value to stuff but rather in the ability to get that stuff and more. My most valuable asset is simply my ability to adapt and survive every obstacle that I have yet encountered and build from it. I have not worked an hourly job in forty-something years and most of the employment that I have lived on for the past four decades has been jobs where I created them, developed my job description and achieved the ultimate objective of fixing what was broken and using it to make money for myself and for the persons or concerns that employed my services. Some of it pays subsistence, some of it pays decent money or influence, and some of it gives nothing but personal satisfaction, I realize this trait makes me very fortunate so I try to learn something new each day and I try to share what I know with those that need to learn the skill of how to work with pride and purpose because that is the only thing on this decaying rock that will possibly save your ass if you manage to dodge the shrapnel. A determination to live and an equally strong inclination to learn the things that will support you while you are rebuilding. Life is about change, even death.
I use to be young and bullet proof like you, and still enjoy learning stuff, but I'm not young and bullet proof any more, so the strength I had gave way to injuries I got being bullet proof . so the stuff I got matters for survival. cause I don't have the years to build it up again.
Once upon a time the only preparations I needed to survive where physical exercise and an open mind. After having survived many an incident prepared with nothing more than a sound body & open mind, the On-The-Job Training inspired me to try and tip the scales a little more in favor. Once I decided to take on the responsibility and pack a significant other in my sea-bag, having bits & bobs to make the extremes more comfortable became more prudent. Didn't realize the significance of that decision! Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, Thing 2's thing 1, Thing 2's thing 2, Thing 3's thing 1........ongoing. So as the responsibilities grew, so did the amount of items I took aboard as preparations. The moral of this sea-story is that any/all preparatory items are expendable to ensure that THE GRANDMOTHER OF ALL THINGS, and all the other Things Large & Small aren't expended. THINGS are important, stuff is expendable. JMHO.
best advise ever <Ask the old timers what roads were open the last time there was a BIG rain. Check the elevation of the oldest cemeteries in the area. You want your house at least that high. Don't laugh at the guy with the second story double wide. He'll be grilling on his deck while you're dragging flood damaged appliances to the curb.> @hot diggity I don't understand 'park your car on the bridge' dont those usually get wiped out? I've never lived thru a hurricane just a tornado or 2, so would you mind 'splaining that one to me?
