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Economic Multipliers (108)
Do you know what these are?
They help CREATE wealth in systems.
Flood disasters are not an economic multiplier.
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When you’ve lived somewhere or visited somewhere, any disaster is more personal.
On this day (9/16/13), the state of Colorado is dealing with damage from massive flooding. The state will recover but it will also take time.
I am not there to help anyone clean up or remove mud or debris but because I purchased a child’s plastic sled at one point in time to help an older relative move things around outside, I offer this small tip (which I hope helps make someone’s life easier):
If you need to move mud by hand (probably to a curb) and you can get ahold of a plastic sled (or even a tarp which you can attach an easy-to-hold handle to), the job might be easier.
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You’ll be able to see lots of photos of the devastation on the news.
I hope lots more tips and photos go up of:
how to make every cleanup job easier
how to salvage items that might initially seem unsalvageable
where to recycle things (like automobiles) if they were not covered for flood damage, will no longer work and have some scrap value (the cost of a new automobile can be equivalent to the cost of 10-20 percent of a mid-size home … and that is the equity that a person could lose if they lost a vehicle)
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Coastal areas typically have topographic maps which define the areas that will flood if water rises a certain amount. I hope that all communities which have the potential for flooding have these maps available and the information is posted on news sites so people know where they should park their cars (and even themselves) if water levels are ever expected to rise.
Because cars can be locked, if they can be protected from rising waters, they effectively have the potential to become mini storage lockers in the midst of any flood.
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Some prior thoughts related to flooding:
"P.S. P.S. P.S. P.S. P.S. … Flooding has become a problem in many communities throughout the world. Protecting the value of already existing assets preserves wealth. I’ll just cover one item: car engines.
Some very smart mechanics have a radio show and newspaper column: the CarTalk guys (www.cartalk.com). If you visit their site and type in ‘flooding,’ you’ll get some really good advice.
If your car ‘takes in’ some water while driving and stalls, think about things like: don’t start it, change the oil and transmission fluid immediately (oil maybe more than once), pull the plugs and check for water (and then probably put some oil in through the ports), etc. You – or your mechanic – need to think about whether water could have gotten in through any air intake system … and a rapid response is important. If a car has sat in water for an extended period of time and/or has any sophisticated electronics, unfortunately you’ll have extra things to think about."
www.downsize-stuff.com/economicmultipliers_19 ... on drainage swales and storage ... (although this article featured a wetter locale, arid areas that could experience flash flooding also have the same kinds of needs)
www.downsize-stuff.com/economicmultipliers_22 ... has some info on flood/disaster strategies ... half way through ...
www.downsize-stuff.com/economicmultipliers_88 ... the value of rock dams ... under the right conditions, it's possible to slow water down upstream but changing the timing can make things worse too unless slowing it down means there is less because it infiltrates into the ground and/or gets taken up into plant storage ...
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Note: Every kind of disaster usually creates some economic value for someone. What you always must ask (when you think about economic multipliers) is this: Does the system or nation as a whole get poorer?
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