Flood Water Damage: Can We Avoid It?

Probably everybody who lives nearby a river has experienced flood water damage at least once in a lifetime. But what can somebody do when his house is built in a very low area, thus getting damaged by water each and every uear, by the time snow melts and torrents go down the mountains carrying tons of debris, huge tree branches and immense quantities of mud? Such flood water damage can go from minor damages to fences or floors, up to complete collapse of houses and even people getting killed for being too old to quit their homes in time.

There are regions of the world where people are too poor and too little educated for getting a flood insurance policy, so they face the challenge of rebuilding their homes every summer, after the spring floods. They just hope to be ready before the winter comes in, so they can welcome the cold weather in a real home and not in the temporary shelters in military tents or modular containers.

Each time I see those poor people becoming homeless after such natural disasters, I think of what they could possibly do to avoid this. I always feel like the society is not doing enough to help them, like we are too busy with our own misery or with our own happiness for keeping in mind that we could really help some of our peers in need.

An idea of avoiding floods is to relocate to a safer area. However, as floods strike mainly villagers who are extremely affected by chronic poverty, they would need to sell their place before being able to buy another one. Sell what? Would you buy a dwelling afected by flood water once or twice a year? If you did, how much would you be willing to pay for it? The amount of money won't be enough for the villager in question to be able to buy something similar on safer, dry land.

Another option would be to have a flood insurance policy to make sure at least that you'd get some money for cleaning up after floods, to fix damages or even to rebuild your house, if necessary. But what insurance company would ever agree to sell such a policy to a homeowner that's at risk of being flooded so often? Besides, even if they did, villagers are not going to spend money on insurance when they don't have enough for feeding their families and their cattle. They'd prefer to face the risk of flood water damage.

One of the solutions for lodging people that were left homeless by such natural disasters are container houses. They are made of metal walls with foam insulation, and they can include modules for various functions such as toilet, shower or kitchen, therefore they can provide decent living conditions. If built on a single level, such dwellings don't require a foundation, so they are quite easy to install, in order to give the homeless some shelters very quickly. Besides, their cost is much lower than the one of brick and mortar homes, and if needed, they can be transported from place to place, being conform with the ISO standards in this field.

If you need to know how much such a modular home would cost you, click here for a container price offer. The link will lead you to Construct Container, a company that produces modular containers for their partners in Romania and Bulgaria. All below photos are examples of their work.