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treeswarper
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PostWed May 13, 2020 6:48 am 
This write up fails to mention that the wetlands are still being filled in and built on. Where you see Walmart whilst driving on I-5 was once a swampy area and the fill keeps going in to build more businesses. I am thinking that a Fred Meyer is or was (before virus) going to be located on more fill in an area where houses were bought up and demolished because of the 2007 flood. Wonder if the Fill Wanted sign is still up by Home Depot? Perhaps the virus depression will stop more destruction of the flood area? Chehalis Basin Flooding

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Luc
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PostWed May 27, 2020 3:21 pm 
I worked on this soon to be released film on the topic: https://www.pacificrivers.org/chehalis-basin.html Here's a preview, but I think it expires after today:

GNGSTR
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moonspots
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PostWed May 27, 2020 4:20 pm 
treeswarper wrote:
This write up fails to mention that the wetlands are still being filled in and built on. Where you see Walmart whilst driving on I-5 was once a swampy area and the fill keeps going in to build more businesses.
Which is just as foolish as those who insist on building on the east coast, or the gulf coast, then want someone, "the government" (us) to pay for their mistakes and then a$$ist them in rebuilding. Same thing happens up here in the "great white north": people build next to the river then wonder what happened when a major flood occurs. Like Ron White said, "you can't fix stupid".

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Schroder
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PostWed May 27, 2020 6:16 pm 
moonspots wrote:
Which is just as foolish as those who insist on building on the east coast, or the gulf coast, then want someone, "the government" (us) to pay for their mistakes and then a$$ist them in rebuilding. Same thing happens up here in the "great white north": people build next to the river then wonder what happened when a major flood occurs. Like Ron White said, "you can't fix stupid".
Well it's not that simple any more. If you're in a FEMA designated flood zone you can't get any insurance except that provided by FEMA and the premium is 1% of the value covered up to certain limits. I can only get 200k of coverage on my house in a 100 year flood zone and it costs 2000 a year. If my damages exceed that I'm out of luck. If I were to built a new house, it would have to be built to FEMA standards (raising the house, on pilings, etc.).

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treeswarper
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PostSat May 30, 2020 8:19 am 
I was able to watch the video. To me, they should have spent more time discussing all the development going on in the flood plain. It is still going on. Perhaps a discussion on the costs of moving the Home Depot, Walmart, etc. to a safe place vs. building a dam would have been a good discussion along with all the salmon and habitat info.

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Anne Elk
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PostSat May 30, 2020 2:00 pm 
Just found this thread. Thanks, treeswarper, for posting the Crosscut article. up.gif Later, I'll look at the doc Luc posted. I remember that big flood well - saved a lot of pics from the Seattle Times reporting. The article says,
Quote:
even though the basin has one of the worst flooding problems in the state, it’s nowhere near as bad as other parts of the country because Washington state has done a comparatively good job of limiting building in floodplains.
"Comparatively." There's always huge pressure from the biz community on county gov't to keep permitting building in floodplains, especially in our rural communities, because ... jobs and tax revenue. Back in the day there was a lot of controversy over building the Fryelands subdivision in Snohomish County because of floodplain issues. I recall hearing subsequent stories about sinking foundations in that area b/c the ground was so saturated. The Tribes are a lot smarter than the white man on these matters, and it's not just about salmon. <sigh> rolleyes.gif

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Schroder
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PostSat May 30, 2020 2:25 pm 
Anne Elk wrote:
there was a lot of controversy over building the Fryelands subdivision in Snohomish County because of floodplain issues
Fryelands has never had any significant flooding in my lifetime. The major flood of '75 when the French Creek pump station burst was the nearest it came to sending water up that far. There were proposals to expand Harvey Field in Snohomish and to build a NASCAR track on the west side of Hiway 9 in the Snohomish Valley that failed primarily to flood concerns. There's still a controversy over a (illegal) mobile home park on the banks of the Snohomish River next to SR 522. FEMA takes a more active role than it ever has in the past toward permitting & if it's in a 100 year flood plain it's problematic getting insurance. If it's in a floodway (moving water) you have no chance of getting a permit.

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Anne Elk
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PostSat May 30, 2020 3:14 pm 
Thanks for those clarifications, Schroder. Perhaps the gossip I head re problems with Fryelands construction had more to do with shoddy contractor work, which seemed to pop up a lot during the building boom of the 90's.

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Luc
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PostSat May 30, 2020 3:49 pm 
treeswarper wrote:
Perhaps a discussion on the costs of moving the Home Depot, Walmart, etc. to a safe place vs. building a dam would have been a good discussion along with all the salmon and habitat info.
Yeah I agree. There's lots of levers that can be pulled, but the film is funded by river and habitat advocates, so there's a lot of that put out in front. An interesting tidbit from the film is that (not sure the permitting entity) that you can still build in a floodplain, you just need to be higher than the previous record (or recorded?) flood. Seems that's just kicking the can down the road.

GNGSTR
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treeswarper
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PostSat May 30, 2020 8:39 pm 
Luc wrote:
An interesting tidbit from the film is that (not sure the permitting entity) that you can still build in a floodplain, you just need to be higher than the previous record (or recorded?) flood. Seems that's just kicking the can down the road.
And that is being done by hauling fill into the wetlands of the area. Then that displaces water during the next flood and places that have "never flooded before" are now flooding. Before I moved back to here, there were plans to build a Fred Meyer where houses had been bought or abandoned and torn down after they flooded. More Fill Wanted? It's a mess. I used to love shopping at the Yardbirds, but they built that in a bad place. After the 2007 flood, I got a good deal on steel thermoses at the Sunbirds after the flood sale. I just cleaned and bleached them and still have them. That store downsized after that flood.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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Brushwork
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PostSun May 31, 2020 12:36 pm 
Thank you for posting the video Luc. It was time well spent to watch. It seems to me that building needs to stop happening in flood prone areas. And more consideration of the effects of mass areas of logging.

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Anne Elk
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PostSun May 31, 2020 5:27 pm 
Just got a look at the doc. Thanks, Luc, for posting it. I knew nothing about the Chehalis except what was reported when the last huge flood happened, so it was a good primer on its history for me. Hard to believe a dam is being considered given that we just took two down. Hopefully we can do better than that.

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Slugman
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PostMon Jun 08, 2020 1:23 pm 
So much for the “we didn’t know” argument: “Historical records recognize this pattern, too, and accounts from early white settlers recall winter floods for miles in every direction in the area now incorporated as the cities of Centralia and Chehalis.”

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