Much of what made the camp special also put it at heightened risk as the river rose to record levels, a Post investigation found.
The thing about flash floods is you need to move before the flood reaches you. Being aware of it doesn’t do much good if you don’t.
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Im not sure building is completely forbidden. I was looking into propery and you could build on it if the structure was elevated which of course costs way more money, but it was possible.
There’s some nuance on whether it’s floodplain or floodway.
It gets technical, but the easy answer is that floodplain us where the waters will rise, while floodway is the path along which water is intended to travel. Lots of the time, the floodplain and the floodway are the same thing, but not always.
Development in the floodplain can sometimes be achieved through a floodplain development permit with a no-rise certification (there will be no net rise of water level in event of a flood caused by the development in the floodplain)
Development in the floodway is generally a hard no, because the floodway is where you want the water to go, and you want water flowing fast in the floodway to clear space for the water coming in behind it. Putting structures on stilts increases friction and slows water down, causing it to back up more upstream.
thanks. It is a distinction I had not thought about. Im pretty sure I could see both terms and if not in the same space close enough to each other, then my brain would think it was referring to the same thing.
Stormwater management is very complicated, important work nobody thinks about. It’s like backend software - if you aren’t thinking about it that means it’s working.
Usually, when you see a building being built, what you see as the beginning is actually the result of years of work by engineers and planners designing and reviewing drainage, transportation, utilities, emergency access, environmental impacts, and more before anyone even talks about any structures. Lots of the time, this work is performed via subdivision improvements that will incorporate a storm sewer system going to a big detention facility (e.g. that lake that’s in the middle of every suburban neighborhood) that accounts for a certain amount of impervious cover on every lot in the development and is built before the land is developed.
I work in a small enclave for the mega-rich where every residential home is essentially its own subdivision, and homeowners are shocked that the drainage design and review takes months or even years of work and requires individual drainage ponds or ranwater collection vaults, while the building itself takes a day or 2 for approval.