Thursday, August 18, 2016
Why so many total losses?
News from the Baton Rouge flood says 40,000 houses will need to be replaced.
Shouldn't happen. This isn't a tidal wave or flash flood that pushes houses off their foundations. This is water rising in place. Most pictures show one to two feet of water. Houses got very wet but weren't struck or pushed by any force.
A house built with flooding in mind, standing tall on a high crawl space, wouldn't have suffered at all; but I don't see any houses built that way. All the pictures show flat-on-the-ground slab houses. Just plain stupid in a natural flood plain.
Older houses didn't need to be replaced when they got wet. Here's a googlestreet from around 10th and Colo St in Manhattan. The southeast quarter of Manhattan was flooded FOUR times from 1903 to 1951. These are all wood-frame houses. Some were around for all four floods, most went through '35 and '51. All are still present and solid. A few might have been replaced at various times, but the vast majority are still there.
What's the difference? Plaster vs drywall? Rock-wool vs fiberglass or cellulose insulation? Wood sheathing vs particleboard?
Older houses didn't need to be replaced when they got wet. Here's a googlestreet from around 10th and Colo St in Manhattan. The southeast quarter of Manhattan was flooded FOUR times from 1903 to 1951. These are all wood-frame houses. Some were around for all four floods, most went through '35 and '51. All are still present and solid. A few might have been replaced at various times, but the vast majority are still there.
What's the difference? Plaster vs drywall? Rock-wool vs fiberglass or cellulose insulation? Wood sheathing vs particleboard?Labels: Asked and unanswered
¶ 4:07 PM
