Oh the Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain!

We are drenched, but not in any serious risk from the storm (we live near the crest of a sandstone hill, so there is no real danger from slides or floods here). Other parts of our semi-arid state, however are not faring as well. And there are flood warnings in our general area. With another storm moving in, we could be in for a doozy. At least in Northern California we get regular wet winters, so we are much better able to deal with this sort of thing than the South. Sometimes when I am down there I look at housing developments being built on alluvial fans and just shake my head. Geology gives a pretty good indication of what to expect at some point in the future, and building on debris flow tailings has always struck me as a not-too-clever invitation to disaster. Likewise, the building in parts of the Sacramento Valley that have traditionally been flood prone strikes me as similarly unwise. Why do people do it? Short-sightedness combined with federally guaranteed flood insurance. Also, local governments eager for more tax revenues tend to relax their vigilance. Now, try to build a perfectly decent building in an established area and you get more red tape and idiotic zoning codes than you can shake a stick at, but when it is a thousand cheaply built homes sold at outrageous prices in a low-lying area near an ill-maintained levee, and they bend over backwards.