Long After Natural Disasters, the Cleanup Grinds On (in Alabama and Missouri)

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Mother Nature is not like typical moms who tell their kids to clean up their messes. Mother Nature makes messes, and big ones.

So long after the natural disasters — whether floods, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes or tornadoes — and even after people find a place to stay once their homes have been destroyed, somebody still has to take out the trash.

And there’s a tremendous amount of the stuff. In Alabama and Missouri, residents are still digging out from this year’s tragic swarm of tornadoes. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the debris it has picked up in Alabama is enough to cover 172 miles of a 24-foot-wide highway to a depth of six feet, a thoroughfare of detritus that would stretch from New York City to Harrisburg, Pa.

So many trees and other vegetative matter have piled up that enormous grinders (brand name: HogZzilla ) are used to chew the waste into smaller chunks so that it takes up less room in landfills.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/05debris.html

[ixion]

1. one of the reasons the messes are so big is because of standard construction practices

like using a pitched, square roof with gables. It's perfectly suited for a strong wind to rip it off. High, flat, linear walls provide optimized wind resistence, perfect for being pushed over. And any given component in a standard house (any wall, for example) is actually unstable unless it's fastened to the other walls.

If we used domes and convex wall shapes, if we built earth homes, we'd see far less damage, in my opinion.

And the bad thing about lots of damage is that if you don't get it fix by the time the next storm comes along, it gets that much more mussed up.

[aquart]

3. Insurance companies need to start encouraging that kind of building.

[ixion]

4. That's a good idea, albeit counter-intuitive

I say that because it's insurance companies now who insist on code compliance, and the code is the problem. It's next to impossible to get anything built the traditional way using 'green' building techniques. There are road blocks at every avenue, and really the only way is to build it first and so far exceed the strength requirements that they can't really say anything. If there's the slightest non-compliance in a design, they'll force you to tear it down.

I agree completely. We need to dump WWII building standards, and move forward more stronger, more efficient techniques.

[aquart]

2. Gosh, I hope we have the money for this.

I mean hurricane season is just getting started.