Why live where you live? (Page 3): I live in Northern New York, it not Albany's area, it three hours by car north of Albany. This year July & August have go down as the hottest months...

Quinn 4

I live in Northern New York, it not Albany's area, it three hours by car north of Albany. This year July & August have go down as the hottest months on record. We had 19 days temperature was 90+. Winter last year we had days with temperature -20 and that with the sun out. Snow last year was a lot. In a normal year a person come and plow out my driveway 10 times for the year. Last winter he was here 20 times. I don't want the ocean as my front yard or have a farint line in my back yard. Unless I hit the lottery, I not going any place.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Quinn 4 wrote:

I live in Northern New York, it not Albany's area, it three hours by car north of Albany. This year July & August have go down as the hottest months on record. We had 19 days temperature was 90+. Winter last year we had days with temperature -20 and that with the sun out. Snow last year was a lot. In a normal year a person come and plow out my driveway 10 times for the year. Last winter he was here 20 times. I don't want the ocean as my front yard or have a faint line

faint line?

Quote:

in my back yard. Unless I hit the lottery, I not going any place.

jaycoffman Loc: San Diego

Why do people fly on airplanes--they sometimes crash? Why to people drive cars--they sometimes crash? Actually the number of deaths from these "natural" disasters is relatively small although very graphic and horrifying. People live in many different places for many different reasons. Economic reasons are a big part of why people live where they do--they want to provide for their family and to practice a particular type of work that they are qualified for. Others can pick for social reasons--they have family or friends in the area. Some for cultural reasons--they like city life or like small town life. Others for personal reasons--I moved from the midwest years ago because after shoveling snow for the xxx time in sub-zero weather before school I swore to myself that when I was old enough for self-determination I would never again live in such a place. California has been very good to me and I got what I wanted. But there are always tradeoffs--it just depends on which natural or man-made disasters you can tolerate and which you can't. I do understand some issues such as flood and fire areas where people are allowed to rebuild numerous times--I'd like to see that curbed but that's probably up to the insurance companies more than the government.

Quinn 4

Another person with a PhD in grammar. UHH most have the most PhD in grammar than any other place in the world.

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Manglesphoto wrote:

An answer to living in a known Tornado area: A tornado can occur anywhere on earth except Antartica

And they have blizzards which can be very severe on property. A Rusky version of the DC3 dropped in to pick up a scientist, weather turned sour & bingo! Thanks to a blizzard.

(Download)

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

G Brown wrote:

Yes, Bognor has had two tornado's in the last 10 years - the first lifted a few slates of a roof, the second took a whole roof of slates off. Hardly a major disaster. A Hurricane twenty years ago blew down a lot of trees and killed several people (mainly those driving their cars in it). Nothing like the devastation that happens in The US.

I think they were a storm and a great storm - as per Vicar of Dibley!

bookman Loc: Southeast Michigan

Tornadoes, hurricanes, frigid winters, sweltering summers, floods, rampaging forest fires, earthquakes...the list goes on and we have them all on this side of the pond. But at least we don't have to put up with royalty.

therwol Loc: USA

BobHartung wrote:

This we agree on. The barrier islands and immediate costal areas should be left undeveloped or not redeveloped after one of these beasts. How big the buffers needs to be should depend on topography and historical data.

All you have to do is look at the redevelopment on the Gulf Coast after hurricanes to wonder if people have lost their minds. (Gulf Shores, Alabama, Coastal Mississippi and so on.) I don't know how anyone can get insurance down there if they build anything near the water.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

G Brown wrote:

I live in the UK. A natural disaster, here, usually involves flooding to the ground floor of your property. Occasionally, should you live close to a river or on a cliff top close to the edge, your house will be totally destroyed by extreme Rainstorms or coastal erosion.

Information about Flood risk areas is available from The Environment Agency website.(UKGOV) Flood is rated as Once in 3, 5, or fifty years. After several recent floods, Insurance companies now refuse to insure certain properties that THEY consider to be at risk.(Known, has no time limit, nor has frequency any bearing. Many homes simply cannot get insurance cover.)

We have no volcanoes now in the UK, though we do occasionally experience tremours as the 'plates' grind due to uplift or lateral shift of our bedrocks. I do, however appreciate that people like volcanic areas for their increased soil nutrients. As agricultural areas they offer a place of work and abundance of crops.

Two areas of the US intrigue me - Why would you live in a known tornado area. Why would you live in a known Hurricane area. Neither bring any benefit to where you live. In fact, the increase in both of these 'natural disasters' within a 'lifetime' would be a major factor to decide not to.

In a country that is quite sparcely populated, there are many areas that 'as an alternative' would be a safer option for those able to move. Yet people persist in rebuilding in the same place. What am I not understanding. What is so important that you put your lives at risk.

In a modern world, many people 'work from home' with no necessary connection to their environment. We have less connection to our birthplace and are much more 'mobile by choice' than our forefathers.

As there seems to be another storm about to hit an area that has not recovered from a previous disaster. I am curious as to how people (or a government) can rationalise non - permanent evacuation. At what point do you think ' you would call it a day' and allow nature to reclaim those parts of the country that it seems intent upon attacking.

I am not being 'defeatist' but as an Environmental Science graduate 'I do not understand'.
We quote King Cannute who showed that 'God Given Royalty' could not command the tide to turn back.

For those affected my hopes are that you keep safe.

I live in the UK. A natural disaster, here, usuall... (show quote)

Tornadoes I don't know but hurricanes and earthquakes are on both coasts and some people just have to live near the coast and are willing to risk the death and destruction associated with living in such areas

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

after living many years in the New Orleans area, we decided to move to New Hampshire. Moving from the deep South to New England is definitely a culture shock. First off, we scouted the area for several years prior to the move, for habitability, and cost. Weather conditions in New England was our first concern. Now we are both retired, we found the heat and humidity in New Orleans to be very repressive. Summer in New Orleans heat ranges from 80s to high 90s, and humidity will run from 85% to 95% or higher. Rain can come down in torrents, with road flooding common. It's common during the Summer to get 2-3 inches within 30 minutes. The actual cost of living in the New Orleans area is beyond reasonable. We owned a very nice ranch style home, about 3000 sq feet. The real estate taxes, with a $75,000 homestead exemption was about $3000, but the flood insurance was $3200/yr, and home owners was $2950, with a no claim discount. Of course the Parish sales tax rate was 11%, and income tax rate at 7%. So, moving to New Hampshire made monetary sense, no sales tax, no income tax, and very low flood and home owner insurance. I do pay a small tax on dividends. In our area in NH, it would be impossible to flood since we're on a mountain. The topography here mountain and valley, not like the flat South. Plus, there are plenty of good roads and interstates running North to South, for our Winter escape to the Gulf Coast. This "snow bird" will be in the South between December, to April. Weather events in New Orleans were actual Hurricanes. As far as damage, hurricanes cause extreme home damage, and monetary damage, both for physical structures, and cost to evacuate, since gouging evacuees is very prevalent. So, now you know why I made the move to New England.

billmck Loc: Central KY

Interesting question...most of us have family or some other draw to an area that offsets the negatives you cite. On the other hand, having been in England and getting caught in constant rain, why would you live there?

Daryl New Loc: Wellington,New Zealand

Interesting thoughts....

lwhitehall Loc: St. Louis

I have lived in tornado alley USA my entire life. I have even lived in Oklahoma where tornadoes are quite common, although my home is in St. Louis, Missouri. While there are more tornadoes in the US than the rest of the world all together, the size of the tornado is relatively small so the odds of having one in a particular spot is rare. There are people in the heart of tornado ally who have lived here their entire lives and other than hearing the storm warnings on the radio, TV or emergency storm sirens they have never seen the tornado. I am one of those. When the alert comes out, we just take precautions and keep an eye on the sky.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Where I live we happen to be about 9m above sea-level, and well inland, so the sea-level rising won't affect us for the rest of our lives, recent major earthquakes affected us minimally because our community is built on river shingle which generally doesn't move much, we are at threat from offshore tsunamis but I think that 9m will keep them away from us (plus we have close good friends whose property is 50m above sea-level), and the alpine fault is 320 years since the last slip on an average of 300 years so could happen again anytime. Fortunately we are well away from likely locations. So we are as safe as it is possible to be although it was by accident not any design or active decision on our part.
I have been watching the volcanic action on Hawaii and am amazed as to how fluid the lava flows. Looks just like water. It reminded me that under us it is all like that and really all the land area on the earth is nothing more than a congealed scum floating on the soup that is the earths bulk. The human race is nothing but a biological oddity so it doesn't really matter where you live nature will get you sooner or later.
In saying that I wouldn't move any closer to low lying coastlines or buy anywhere near any volcanoes that were known to be active in the last 100,000 years. Nor anywhere near rivers that have flooding problems.

Tinkwmobile

Not sure what the root cause of your question might be. If it's the current reports about the hurricane in the US, don't forget it's the media doing the report. Their job is to get you to watch/listen.

I can't speak for the rest of the world. I have visited places, but live where I choose, basically because of the weather. We rarely have cold weather, it's snowed once in the last 20 years and that was a generous 1/4". I worked in Syracuse NY where we had 3 feet of snow one day. Dare I say, no comparison.

I live 12 miles (as the egret flies) from the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, we have had several hurricanes. Like many, my house is built to hurricane standards, the roof is metal and screwed on with a 150mph guarantee. We even have a whole house generator. I have covers for a few exposed windows. No chance of a flood or storm surge. We get to enjoy the beach just about anytime we want, year round. Traditionally I play golf on New Years day in shorts, comfortably. If a hurricane comes, we put up a few loose things outside and hunker down. Much rather have a hurricane than a tornado, any day; or for that matter a snow and ice storm. We are smart enough not to live right on the water. Those that do need to build to hurricane standards and be prepared. We have never evacuated, not during Ivan or Katrina.

And FYI - more folks in US killed by cold than summer weather.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/07/30/weather-death-statistics-cold-heat/13323173/