DOWN TO THE SEA
Why, I wonder, do so many people continue to build and/or rebuild homes along seashores which are knowingly doomed to be dumped into the eroding sea? One third of our population now lines in coastal areas.
l
These are not make-do shanties, either. Some elegant homes are constantly being build along cliff sides which plainly show they cannot long endure the ravages of the surf and winds beating against them and their base. Everyone who builds such projects seems to think that sort of thing takes place elsewhere that it "can't happen here." They put great credence in talk about “five-hundred year floods" and other time-based disaster classifications. Even if they have just experienced a major flood or hurricane, they find it easy to convince themselves it will be a long time before such a thing happens again. Every such disaster turns up half a dozen people who claim this is the third or fourth time they have "lost everything", but they keep coming back.
The reason has to be financial, I'm sure . It is a matter of economics in the final analysis, I'm sure, but it works both ways. If a person has legal possession of a specific site - be it on the seacoast or in a known flood plain area in the mountains, he or she is going to find it difficult to simply it give it up or to sell it for a price which they deem to be far too low. Others, finding such property available, find the reduced price to be attractive and are willing to take a chance on the floods not coming again, at least, for any time soon. It's a gamble of sorts.
I have know places, however, which are located just ten or twelve feet above the water's edge who have lived in that same place for generations and have never been inundated by any serious flood waters. To some, just the potential danger involved is all the more reason to live there. It adds an element of adventure to everyday existence for many.
It would seem that insurance costs alone would be high enough to discourage such construction, but, on the whole, I dare say, such builders don't worry too much about insurance of any type. I have often wondered how local building codes can permit construction on land which is known to be prone to erosion and of literally sliding into the sea. This would indicate that the building codes are, often, political tools to be used for all sorts of purposes other than the safety of human lives.
California is one of the prime offenders in such building, both along the coast and inland on land which is unstable and subject to brush fire hazards,as well. As California grows to 50-million or more in population, it is going to get a great deal worse, too.
We point at them, and that makes us feel a bit better, as we go right on doing the same silly sort of thing here at home wherever that may be.
A.L.M. June 9, 2003 [c495wds]
