Why do people continue to live in the area despite suffering much damage from floods?

Question

If anyone knows, cuz there's this big project I gotta do



THANKS

Answer 1

For the same reasons why people live near a volcano in Hawaii or Washington State that could erupt any time (and has in the past), in a state that has earthquake or mudslide every few years (California), in areas of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas that killer tornadoes hit almost every year, in the stark dessert areas of Arizona and Nevada, in the frigid snow of Alaska where winter lasts 9 months each year, in inner city areas that have a murder or two every night (LA, NYC, Chicago, Dallas...). One or more of the following:

1. They have roots there and do not want to leave their communities.
2. They have no money or means to go anywhere else (many of the people who did not leave New Orleans when Katrina hit because they had no cars and no money for bus fares)
3. They don't think they can make a living elsewhere.
4. They have means to leave but love the area so much for its beauty or ways of life that they'd rather risk the wraths of nature than live elsewhere (people who own ocean-front homes in California that slipped down the cliff every year or two or beautiful mansions in Florida that have been torn up by hurricanes and rebuilt and torn up again several times)

Answer 2

Maybe I'm thinking backwards, but isn't the government supposed to have a plan. If you go into business in order to get a loan you need a business plan. It starts with a vision statement. I swore I saw a scripture that said, where the leaders lack vision, the people perish. But seems true anyway. I just don't see why people don't form a committee. Come on, don't laugh. Form a committee and come up with a plan for the country. The leaders aren't going to do it. Come on. ARE they? So why not blame yourself. We always blame the other guy. Kind of irresponsible in my backwards way of thinking. The news would get over the net pretty quickly. "Citizens form a committee to actually come up with a plan". Everyone emails with ideas. Oh, we can't do that. Just reverse your thinking. We do do. I think I can. I think I can. Don't they teach that in school. What do they teach. Not the same thing as when I was in, I hope. And then we get the people to vote on it an show it to the Prez. No not Elvis. Hey, enough people sign on like a majority, how would they say no. Now I know you are going to use your brilliant minds, and they are, but why use them to say, I can't? My mom wouldn't let me get away with that. It's such a spoiled generation. Emotional intelligence tests were lowest with top executives and the unemployed. I hate to tell you, but if we don't do it. It don't get done.

Answer 3

I don't have an answer but I grew up in an area where people had homes and farms outside the dike and they suffered from at least minimal flooding every year. They couldn't get house or farm insurance and they had to cover all their own costs for repairs. We couldn't understand the apparent stupidity of it until, as an adult, I went to work for a construction company owned by people who attended a Dutch Orthodox Church. They don't believe in insurance of any kind. They only insure their vehicles with the minimum required by law. They don't vaccinate their children. So they bought cheap land on the outside of the dike because no matter where they lived they wouldn't be buying insurance anyway. They live their lives completely dependent on the Will and Mercy of God. Not my idea of a good time but we all deal with things in different ways. Interesting isn't it?

Answer 4

Usually areas that are most susceptible (spelled something like that) to some sort of costly natural disaster (e.g. Miami and the Gulf Coast, Seattle, the Hawaiian Islands, the entire freakin' state of California) also happen to be some of the coolest places to live, and that is the draw. Take New Orleans, for example. I don't know anyone, having visited there pre-Katrina, who doesn't have a crazy or amazing or wonderful story (or stories) to tell about it (along with photos or documentation as proof). It was that kind of place.

You also have to take into consideration the frequency of the natural disasters. If Miami saw hurricanes the likes of Andrew every five years instead of every fifty-something years, or if San Fransico saw earthquakes like the one in 1989 every year instead of every eighty years, the populations just wouldn't return because they couldn't rebuild fast enough.

So it worth the risk to live in these areas? The populations obviously think so. To paraphrase (spelled something like that) a line from the movie 'Steel Magnolias': "I would rather have thirty minutes of [San Francisco] than a lifetime of [Cleveland*]." **

Answer 5

I feel that they are too poor, that is why they live in such a bad area, and that the government should give them aid. But if they are rich, like millionaires in Florida who have beach front houses that get ruined by hurricanes, I could care less. If you have enough money to get a mansion, put it in a safe area.

Answer 6

So that they can blame global warming on the floods, instead of using logic and realizing that living in a coastal area increases your risk of being flooded out of house and home.

Answer 7

They might want to stay because the beautiful state flower like for Washington state the Coast Rhododendron its so beautiful that people will might want to stay of that and because they maybe like so live close by the ocean

Answer 8

Sometimes it's cheaper. Also some people will live in places where no one else would want to live because they are anti-social.

Answer 9

It is their Home, and they are attached to it