Heads on a swivel you folks on Eastern Seaboard. Flo's coming.

[Mini Horses]

Not only is it a red flag to build, I'm wondering how he got permits to do so??? Our communities are very strict about such issues, as well as having a developer contribute to increased utilities and school areas, green areas, etc.

 

[greybeard]

If the city or county permits it according to regulations & rules, and their inspectors pass it, then they are the ones that should be "on the hook".
However, there is a thing called 'reasonable risk' which basically says if that area hasn't seen high water in over 100 years (sometimes 500 yrs) then it is 'reasonable' to assume the risk is relatively low that it will.

If everything and everywhere that 'could' flood never gets approved for buildings, most of the US East Coast and Gulf Coast would be barren of any population centers.

Having said that, if someone chooses to live in a low lying are, then it is ultimately and always their choice and their doing to do so. No one holds a gun to anyone's head and tells them they have to live in a low lying or flood risk area.
I do live in one, and I know. I can read a FEMA flood map and so can anyone else with 2 brain cells to rub together. My choice & responsibility entirely.

 

[Baymule]

If the city or county permits it according to regulations & rules, and their inspectors pass it, then they are the ones that should be "on the hook".
However, there is a thing called 'reasonable risk' which basically says if that area hasn't seen high water in over 100 years (sometimes 500 yrs) then it is 'reasonable' to assume the risk is relatively low that it will.

If everything and everywhere that 'could' flood never gets approved for buildings, most of the US East Coast and Gulf Coast would be barren of any population centers.

Having said that, if someone chooses to live in a low lying are, then it is ultimately and always their choice and their doing do do so.
I do, and I know. I can read a FEMA flood map and so can anyone else with 2 brain cells to rub together. My choice & responsibility entirely.

You ought to know about flood zones if anybody does. My sister lives in a flood zone. I wish she'd move.

 

[Bunnylady]

But see, this isn't a flood zone in the usual sense; we are far enough from bodies of water for that. But the soils are hydric, and the native vegetation is largely species that are found in wetlands (including at least 5 species of carnivorous plants). There are some places where the peat layer is several feet deep. But cut down the trees, get your bulldozer to rearrange things a bit, and who's going to know that their house stands on a place that used to have a vernal pool every summer? There's a reason these areas weren't developed years ago; the soil has zero drainage, so septic fields couldn't be put in. The letter of the law might be met by ditches, drains, and retention ponds, but when the water has nowhere further to go, it goes into the houses. I suspect a lot of these homeowners had no idea that their homes were at risk.

 

[greybeard]

All coastal soils are hydric to one degree or another.
It's no big secret...........can't be, since it seems everyone there was aware of it, otherwise it wouldn't be brought up in discussions on the internet. (Maybe those who were aware of it should be sued for not speaking out BEFORE the problem surface)


Houston has the same drainage problem, and New Orleans even more so. (Both are nearly 90 miles from the gulf). Houston has no big body of water or lake around it.
But doesn't matter one bit if anything is near a river or other waterway or lake. When you get that much rain, in that short a period of time, and the natural drainage target is high (Atlantic Ocean) you can expect problems.
No matter where one lives, life is a gamble.

2 words.
Due diligence.
Do the best we can and get on with our miserable little lives and try not to go pointing fingers and looking for a lawsuit payout when Ma Nature comes a callin, which IMO, is one of the things that is wrong with this nation anyway nowadays.

 

[Bunnylady]

it seems everyone there was aware of it

"Everyone?" Probably not. Actually, you could probably narrow it down to the people who know what a poquosin is, and can recognize one (before the vegetation is removed, of course). You'd have to further thin the pool to those who have been living in the area long enough to know what the terrain looked like before the builder bought it and cleared it, and since a poquosin in its natural condition is a nearly impenetrable jungle, even the kids that seem to roam everywhere might not know that patch of woods.

A local builder had to buy back and demolish a whole row of houses in a nearby development because, even with that massive ditch behind them, the yards frequently had standing water, and the houses had mold and cracks in the walls from subsidence. These guys see acreage, and all they think about is how many houses they can squeeze onto it. Low spot? What low spot? I don't see a low spot! If there was a low spot, I'd have to work around that, because of it being a wetland and protected by law, but there aren't any low spots here, as you can plainly see since there is nothing but raw level ground in any direction you look.

(And the way you get around around the whole wetland protection thing, is you replace the naturally occurring wetland with "wetland" in a place of your choosing, which, since developments are now expected to deal with their own run-off, means retention ponds that can provide fill for those low spots that might or might not have existed before the bulldozer cleared the whole site)

I agree that one should know what they are getting into before they get into it, but should you really need to get a degree in hydrology and coastal ecosystems before you buy a starter home? When the whole area already has streets and disquietingly similar houses on it, it's kind of hard to spot the historic (as in, less than 10 years ago) drainage pattern. Around here, just a few inches can be the difference between high and dry, and replacing the flooring and drywall. Maybe those homeowners should have taken it as a warning to sell out and move to higher ground when the roadbed a couple of blocks down the street turned to mush after a non-tropical rainy spell this past Spring, but if they thought about it at all, they probably thought the builder simply hadn't done a proper job of laying down the foundation of the road in the first place (which is probably true).

I, too, am annoyed by the way that people seem to immediately look around for a lawyer the moment anything in life doesn't go their way, but shouldn't there be some recourse against the P. T. Barnums of this world? Naturally, the builder wants to make money (doesn't everyone?), but should they be allowed to take the money and run, leaving the homeowners, their insurance companies, and the county/city taxpayers to pay the bills when the marginal land they built on behaves as it always has?

But on a much sunnier note, invest 98 hasn't managed to develop into anything serious, only produced a little bit of rain in the coastal counties, and is now on its way outta here!

 

[greybeard]

but if they thought about it at all, they probably thought the builder simply hadn't done a proper job of laying down the foundation of the road in the first place (which is probably true).

That seems to be a recurring theme there.
Never believe everything ya think. It's not rocket surgery.
Or, blame business, or govt, or somebody, everybody, anybody but themselves.

I agree that one should know what they are getting into before they get into it, but should you really need to get a degree in hydrology and coastal ecosystems before you buy a starter home?

No, you hire someone that does...before you buy. The smart people do anyway. Everyone else charges ahead blindly and deserve whatever they get.

 

[Mike CHS]

But on a much sunnier note, invest 98 hasn't managed to develop into anything serious, only produced a little bit of rain in the coastal counties, and is now on its way outta here!

You folks in North Carolina have to be getting sick of rain. I'm not griping but we have had almost solid rain for 3 days.

 

[Baymule]

In Livingston we had black clay. Harder than concrete when dry, mud that would suck you out of sight when wet. The slab on our house was cracked, rather badly. We had our house inspected and told the buyer about the slab. We lowballed the price because we didn't want to still have it hanging around our necks a year later because we were holding out for more money. The slab didn't bother the buyer one bit, it is a common thing in that area.

The land we owned where our horses were was black clay. It stuck to my boots when wet, every step my boots got bigger and bigger. Horrible stuff, I don't miss it one bit. It was even worse ground that where our house was.

Now we are on sand. NO MUD.

I was raised in Houston. Same black clay that cracked open in the summer, swelled shut in the winter rains. It moved houses and cracked slabs. People new to the area had no idea about that black clay and often bought homes with cracked slabs. Nowadays inspectors do a much better jobs and people are a little better protected. But low ground will always be low ground. Flat ground with little to no drainage will get soggy and give problems.

Where ever you live, conditions will not be perfect. All you can do is the best you can do.

 

[Simpleterrier]

And that folks is why I live in ohio