Places on Earth where you probably shouldn't build a house

After 67 years around the Sun,
I have some thoughts about this topic.

Here's where I wouldn't build a house.

Not near where I grew up : Memphis.
So many reasons, including flooding and other factors.

Not in Portland Oregon, where I lived before coming here (N Maine).
Why? They're expecting that mag 9 earthquake when the Juan de Fuca plate slips.
Well, there are other factors there, also (social criteria involving hipsters and Starbucks), but ...

(In general, anywhere on the coast of that Pacific Ring of Fire is questionable.
Locations lower than, say, 20' above sea level are subject to tsunamis.)

I'd also think twice about a stilt house down on the Miss'ippi delta below NO.
The issue there isn't the stilts, or the river, but those hurricanes with storm surges. <ahem>

I'd also question building one square dab in the middle of the Australian outback.
It's extremely hot and dry there. Plus, that's where they sent the prisoners.

But right now, today, after reading news stories about that volcanic thing over on Hawaii,
I'd have to say avoid those Zone 1 Volcanic eruption areas.

I mean, why build a house in a subdivision near an active volcano?

That's the question one might ask when watching lava
-- liquid rock -- flow down the street toward your house.

Seems that the Darwin Award may apply here.

 

@anrkst6973 and @The Marsh Gorilla, any thoughts about this?

 

At least hurricanes give you a 2 week notice to prepare or get out the way.
Earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes,flash floods no notice.

 

the entire region between Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and area is considered a active volcano/ debris torrent hazard.

yet some of the priciest INHABITED real estate in Western Canada is there

going to be interesting.

 

At least that.

 

This music's going to need some threads.

No, wait .. I meant, this thread's going to need some music.

 

YIKES! I’ll take hurricanes with their flooding and mud. You can build on piling to cope with that, but pilings aren’t doing sh!t for lava flows!

 

hahahaha ... right?

Up in smoke ...

 

@Dennis Adams lives in E TN.

But he travels and -- reportedly --
carries .357 mag snubs.
(some SW Airweight;
but it's just a rumor.)

I wonder if .357 mag will stop lava flow ..

Smoke'm if you've got 'em.

 

Nature has ways of making us small, insignificant...it's the coolest damn thing. I could build you a house that will withstand Cat 5's hurricane's, or F5 tornados, that floods won't destroy nor raging forest fires burn. But lava...When your fortress becomes one with the earthstone...that's Gaia's way of saying"you're f#cked".

 

Well put!

I love .357, but I’m pretty sure it’d be as effective on lava flows as much as a fart can slow down a tornado lol

 

some example of debris torrents in my region

washed out forests end up in the massive rivers

 

So .. it looks like we just keep driving upstream, right?

 

I’ll stay in the dakotas and northern Minnesota. Tornadoes do happen but not frequently. Obviously there’s the whole winter thing to deal with but it’s tolerable.

 

I have lived smack dab in the middle of 2 of those places.. As i always tell people when they talk about all the devastation and destruction they have experienced... "Maybe some high power is trying to tell you something!" I would say it's trying to say "You don't belong here! MOVE!!! "

 

I took the opposite approach and built a home right near the Yellowstone Caldera. I figure when that puppy blows, I'd rather be taken out quickly than slowly.

 

^^ There be humor here.^^

So Dane sees "Here be dragons" on the map, and Hammer moves there.

 

BTW, @koolaidnd, I see "winter" vs "volcanoes" like ... ice cream vs a vat of boiling water.

 

Not much can kill you here other then winter, tornados, and boredom. Seems pretty safe to me.

 

If I ever lived in a tornado zone again -- and I promise, I will not : never, never again
(one of those f**(ers was enough to convince me) -- I'd either build an underground house
(bermed into a hill) or a concrete dome (if I was rich enough).

But live there in a house of sticks? No, thankee, cause those supercells can
huff and puff and blow your house to smitherines. Just ask the folks in Joplin MO.