Carpenter's Creek - Due Diligence - Common Sense

I read in yesterday's PNJ about folks living along Carpenter's Creek complaining about damage from last year's April flood.  They had severe erosion, lost property and a gazebo, etc. to the raging creek.

One part of me sympathizes with the homeowners that were impacted... the loss of their property and improvements.  

Another part of me says "Why in hell did they build so close to that creek?"

Carpenter's Creek watershed is a fairly large land mass and there is a lot of development with impervious surfaces within the watershed... buildings, roads, parking lots, etc... all shedding water into the creek when it rains.  And some of those houses were built fairly close to the creek, too.  Were the homeowners so naive to think they would be immune from the ravages of nature?  Now they want the government to bail them out for their own stupidity and lack of due diligence.

When you go to build a home, you need to consider what might happen to the property when Mother Nature throws a tantrum.  Is the property subject to flooding?  Will the creek overflow it's boundaries?  Will erosion be a problem?  

Is the government (us taxpayers) now on the hook to fix stupidity?

It reminds me of people that build on the Gulf and want taxpayers to bail them out for beach re-nourishment, all the while putting "no trespassing" signs on their beach.

^Amen, brother. I feel like I have written what you posted before. It really chaps my hide.

Carpenter's Creek was a beautiful clear creek. As a child I swam in the creek all the time. The homes built along the creek were built in the 50's. The problems, in my opinion, was caused by all the commercial development in the last 10-15 years.

What about the fertilizers and pesticides put on all of those lawns since the 50s?? I'm sure they have changed the NORMAL vegetation and has caused erosion...

There are areas of Carpenter's Creek, north near Burgess Road, where it really needs overgrowth cleaned out. I'm sure that would go a long way in helping problems that people may be experiencing further south.

If you buy in a water source area you need to know that your property can flood and erode and it's your deal to pay for by way of flood insurance or erosion prep.

Also agree with the fact that too much fertilizer causes big issues for the water ways that naturally drain the land.

Florida does have the law where the business that builds and covers over land must put in what my dad always called "mosquito holes."

Retention ponds and detention ponds can only hold so much. And if a business doesn't cover 30% of his lot with impervious surfaces, it is exempt from the pond requirement.

Doggie doo is also a problem in addition to fertilizer.

When I built my house on a waterfront lot on Innerarity Island in 1990, I built it a little over two feet above the Corps of Engineers and FEMA flood requirements. If I had built at minimum, the bottom floor would have flooded many times, but it never flooded at the elevation I built it at. My main living area was 10 feet above that.

The Innerarity Island causeway goes under water during hurricanes and, one time after a hurricane, but before the water had receded, I waded back across the causeway after checking my house. A car full of pencil-pushers with FEMA on their shirts asked me if anybody got flooded out over there.

I said "You're damn right they got flooded. I built my house two feet above their level and almost got flooded." The next FEMA maps that came out required two more feet of elevation.

How can we outbuild nature? We can't.