You don’t need to study feng shui to realize that probably building on a flood plain isn’t such a good idea. The problem is, when searching for a home, we consumers assume that if a house already exists on a property, it couldn’t be sitting on a flood plain. Isn’t that why we have city codes? Okay, now I understand there could be an exception if the house was built in the 30’s or earlier when no such codes may have existed. But in this day and age, you’d think with all the available technology, new developments would protected us consumers from flood disasters.
Unfortunately, this isn’t true. As in the case of the flooding in Missouri.
I was reading an article in the Economist about Floods in the Midwest. A geologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Robert Criss, had rightfully warned the city policymakers about building in the areas flood plains. Construction of commercial and residential property was allowed on flood plains that were originally used as farmland. As we know, water is better able to permeate soil than concrete and asphalt. So, building only amplifies the flooding problem.
The rain lasted for 3 days in December. According to the National Weather Service, it was between 9-14 inches of rain! Unfortunately, this has caused deaths and so much damage. My heart goes out to these people. I wonder if it could have been prevented.
The other part of the problem of flooding stems from the intervention of man changing the flow of the Mississippi River through the use of navigational dykes, dams, locks, and levees. From a feng shui perspective, we are taught to always work with nature. In this case, instead of working with nature, it seems as if we are trying to control the river to flow and stop in a particular path for our own convenience. Every time you change something, it has to affect it’s original path. So, it seems that through the combination of over construction on the surrounding areas of the river and the river itself, compounded to create this unfortunate situation. If nothing changes, Mr. Criss rightfully predicts, “the misery will repeat itself.”
Why do we keep building on flood plains and how do we protect ourselves? Who can we trust nowadays? It just makes me a little sad that we can’t trust our own society. But, we can protect one another from making the wrong choices through being better informed. We have to take matters into our own hands.
My husband and I are in the process of moving again. …. But through this process, I’ve found some good government websites that can somewhat help protect us from disasters similar to this. Here in Washington State, a website called the Department of Ecology provides information on water, air, waste, toxic hazards and more. They have a wonderful page that features the state flood hazard maps. If you’re planning to move home or office, it’s good to just double check with these maps. Just this simple information of knowing where the flood plains are in your vicinity will give you a peace of mind. It’ll also help you decide if you need flood insurance too.
On the national level, FEMA also has a website for flood maps, but I just found the Washington State site much more user friendly. If this is available for Washington State, you may want to search to see if there is a good source of information for your area online.
The big picture of feng shui begins with location and the landscape. As our landscape changes so does the feng shui. As noted above with the Mississippi River and farmland, changes can be both man-made as well as natural, and one can cause havoc to the other. As weather patterns continue to change through climate change, the need to be more aware of our environment will become evident. Let’s keep each other safe.
