A few years ago, our insurance co decided we were at deep risk of flooding because we are a half-mile from the Rio Grande.
a river which, when it is running nice and high in the summer, you can WALK across without getting wet above the hip.
a river which has extensive earthwork levies on both sides, a goodly distance from that "deep" channel, and a vast drainage network in the form of irrigation ditches that spread out from it at a width of several miles on each side, for the distance of almost the entire length of the river -- i think the only parts of the Rio Grande that do not feed the acequia irrigation systems are near its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains, and where it goes through the steep-walled Rio Grande Gorge, up north. that's why they call it the lifeblood of the southwest: we all would not eat except for that river feeding thousands of farms. however, that means that if it starts flooding, ever, all they have to do is start opening ditch-gates and it will disperse safely into several hundred miles of muddy fields.
then they forgot about the part where there are no hurricanes here because wow are we inland, and also this is a desert. 10" of rainfall a year, in a good year.
a year and some later, the class-action lawsuit that an Albuquerque-area HOA filed against said insurance company had resolved, and they had to stop charging mandatory flood insurance for everybody in the Middle Rio Grande basin, because reality.
no subject
a river which, when it is running nice and high in the summer, you can WALK across without getting wet above the hip.
a river which has extensive earthwork levies on both sides, a goodly distance from that "deep" channel, and a vast drainage network in the form of irrigation ditches that spread out from it at a width of several miles on each side, for the distance of almost the entire length of the river -- i think the only parts of the Rio Grande that do not feed the acequia irrigation systems are near its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains, and where it goes through the steep-walled Rio Grande Gorge, up north. that's why they call it the lifeblood of the southwest: we all would not eat except for that river feeding thousands of farms. however, that means that if it starts flooding, ever, all they have to do is start opening ditch-gates and it will disperse safely into several hundred miles of muddy fields.
then they forgot about the part where there are no hurricanes here because wow are we inland, and also this is a desert. 10" of rainfall a year, in a good year.
a year and some later, the class-action lawsuit that an Albuquerque-area HOA filed against said insurance company had resolved, and they had to stop charging mandatory flood insurance for everybody in the Middle Rio Grande basin, because reality.