Another approach to flood protection for vacation houses?

[Jackson Landers]

As hurricane Hanna makes a beeline for me (although I'm 100 miles from the beach and will be fine), I've been thinking about the various approaches to protecting a coastal home from hurricane damage. Or flood damage in general, really.

Usually, the idea is to get the house up as high as possible on stilts and just hope that the water never goes that high.  This is usually a pretty good method. However, I wonder if a good strategy for a vacation house might perhaps be to design the home to be flooded with minimal damage.

You would probably want to build out of concrete. Have doorways and windows lined up on all 4 sides of the house such that if there is strong water pressure against one side, the water can pass straight through the house rather than knocking it down. This makes for good ventilation in the summer anyway.  Don't use any carpet. Maybe some inexpensive throw rugs that you can afford to lose. In the kitchen, use inexpensive overhead cabinets and stainless steel, restaurant style counters and open storage below.  Install drains in the floor at regular intervals.  Keep the furniture inexpensive, preferably not upholstered. Maybe 'This End Up' type stuff where you can pull off the cushions and stow them some place safe.

Maybe you'd want to get creative with attaching windows and doors so that they will quickly fail and allow fast-moving water to pass through rather than push the house down.

It could add up to a situation where dealing with the aftermath of a flood would consist of mopping the floor, airing the place out and maybe having to replace windows and doors if it was a *really* serious flood or storm surge.  Is this a stupid idea?

[firefox]

I think it sounds good but I am certainly not an expert, so I don't know what problems you might have.

I was  thinking that if you bought an old river barge and fixed it up nice, then design some special mooring to allow it to float up and down but not away.

Of course you would have to put up with people calling you Noah..But I think it could be done really nice and be a lot of fun.

Bruce

[Redoverfarm]

Yeah but what will the neighbors say about all those animals?

[firefox]

Neighbors??? Oh, you mean snacks for the animals, right?
Nice kitty.....
Bruce