Page 66 - Green Builder July-August 2019 Issue

FROM THE TAILGATE By Ron Jones

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

That ‘Ounce of Prevention’

HEN YOU RESIDE at almost 9,000 feet
above sea level, you don’t necessarily give
local ooding a lot of thought. Flooding is
something you see and hear about on the
W news coming from coastal regions and
the farmlands in the Midwest. That changed for us here
in the Colorado Rockies this summer, after we received
roughly twice our normal snow accumulation over the
winter. That tremendous snow load triggered massive
avalanches here and in many other parts of the Mountain
West, as they crashed down the slopes and chutes with
incredible force.
They mowed down entire sections of forests, turned
thousands of mature trees into shattered missiles, and
then deposited them, along with trainloads of boulders,
into gigantic debris piles held together by ice and packed
snow. As a result, the pending snowmelt represents ooding
threats in the creeks and rivers up in the high country on a
scale rarely experienced over the decades. Our little village
has been under ood warnings since the middle of spring
and, as of this writing, the threat persists even though
thousands of sandbags now line many of our buildings
and roadways.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to deliver a
presentation on the same program as retired General Russel
Honoré, the renowned military commander who was sent
into New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina to restore
order and provide protection, assistance and hope to the
citizens there. Honoré was a leader known for getting results and cure,” famously attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is believed to have
for providing colorful sound bites. referred to “re prevention, but it can apply to many kinds of threats
On the subject of oods he is quoted as declaring, “This is a that result from a host of man-made and “natural” disasters. Sadly,
disaster. This isn’t something somebody can control. We ain’t stuck the wisdom in his words often falls on deaf ears, when short-term
on stupid.” Unfortunately, we may be. Many places experience the economic opportunities are at stake.
same series of catastrophes and disasters time after time, and yet Many of us have recognized that we are witnessing just the
we continue to build and rebuild in many of them. tip of the proverbial (melting) iceberg, when it comes to pending
The General said that he had previously declared that “recovery environmental challenges and the many disasters that are occurring
costs “ve times more than prevention,” but subsequent reports from with increased frequency and intensity. But collectively, our industry
the federal agencies responsible for dealing with such events showed appears willing to pursue the business-as-usual model for as long
him to be in error. The data from those studies indicated that the as there are pro“ts to be grabbed, regardless of how steep the odds
actual costs were tenfold or even more. Yet, the homebuilding and are that history will continue to repeat itself, often in ways that are
real estate development industries relentlessly lobby lawmakers to bad for everyone.
maintain their opportunities to harvest pro“ts from risky projects One more quote from General Honoré seems increasingly worth
in areas that are often marginally safe at best. considering: “People need to be cautious, because anything built by
The old axiom, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of man can be destroyed by Mother Nature.” GB

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