Why do people live where they live?

Published on January 31, 2005 By jdkeepsmiling In Misc

Just a little comment:

I was watching the show last night on the discovery channel that was about Pompeii. The first half was the really cool part, but the second half was the more practical and scary part. In that part, they talked about how abuot 3.5 million people live in the area that was destroyed in the eruption of 79 A.D. This means that if the Vesuvius erupted and 1/3 of those people died we are talking about 10 times the number of dead of the recent tsunami.

All of this made me think...why do people live there? I live in Michigan, and besides a cold winter, we rarely have any kind of natural disasters that do any kind of damamge. My question is why do people willingly live in places that are very prone to disaster? Why are there millions along the gulf coast and in New Orleans? Why are there more millions in L.A. and Southern California? I think every week I hear about another natural disaster in SoCal. I mean they have wildfires, mudslides, earthquakes....

All of this made me think about all the disaster relief money that the Federal Government pays out to those locations, and rightfully so, so that the people can rebuild and get thier lives going again..... But arent we fighting a losing battle? One day we will ahve the big earthquake and one day the hurricane will run right into New Orleans. So why doesn't the government do something about people in those areas. I know that up here you cannot build in a floodplain of a river, so why are we allowing people to move in droves to areas that are just treading water until a major disaster strikes. We are in an age of major threats from terrorists and external facotrs, we do not need to be putting a huge portion of our population in the way of Mother Nature.

I already know what most of you are going to argue...that this is a free country and I can damn well live where I please. You are correct, but then you should not be crying out for federal assistance to help you rebuild in the spot that you chose to live at, knowing full well the risks involved. If you are going to be so strident about your freedom, then take some of the responsability that comes with that freedom.

Thoughts and comments please......

Comments

Locamama

on Jan 31, 2005

I live in Texas because my husband is in the military and this is where he took orders. The storms here are very severe much worse than anywhere else I have lived and there is always the threat of tornados. What scares me is that they don't have basements here in most houses. I always felt more safe in Ohio because I knew we could always go to the basement if there was a storm. I like it here though and would like to stay. We were in Maryland and Florida before both of which had hurricanes but not where I lived. I think you are right though if people chose to live somewhere that they know there is a higher chance of natural disasters they should be required by law to carry at least a minimum of insurance on their homes.

JillUser

on Jan 31, 2005

I watched the Pompeii special also and had similar thoughts to yours. I think most people have the "it won't happen to me" attitude toward life. Like they said in that special, a lot of people live for today and don't worry too much about tomorrow. They know what happened in 79 AD but that was so long ago...so they think.

I live in MI also and use your same arguments to stay here (my hubby always wants to move to TX). Being warm/hot all year is not a good argument for where to live in my book. Like Locamama said, MI and OH get tornados but at least we have basements! If a tsunami reaches MI, the world has much more dire problems than whether or not I survive.

MI has the beautiful water without the dangers the ocean has to offer. Sure, we can only swim in it a few weeks out of the year but I still love it. I like the changing seasons too. My main reason for where I live is where my family is though. Perhaps those people in Pompeii have family who have been there for generations. If you know that your whole family would get wiped out if the volcano blew, you might feel like going out with them anyway....just a thought.

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