Maybe river bottom homes need stilts

I grew up in southern Indiana a few miles from the Ohio River. From a high perch in the oak tree in our backyard, I could see Kentucky.

Nearly a mile wide inside its banks, the river would flood every spring covering thousands of acres with muddy water. A levee kept the Ohio out of town, and hardly anybody lived in the floodplain.

There were, however, a number of river camps scattered along its banks. They were all built on stilts.

I didn’t know anyone who owned a river camp, but I always found them fascinating. Little more than shacks on poles, they survived the worst floods year after year. No doubt some are still there.

Barb and I discovered a similar type of river-camp architecture while fishing in Florida. We started calling them Chokoloskee houses after the little town on the edge of the Everglades where we camped.

Chokoloskee has a long history of hurricanes, and the residents long ago quit building houses on the ground. Most of the newer residences are simply manufactured homes sitting ten feet up on poles. Like camps on the Ohio River, they remain high and dry from flood and storm surge.

Beachfront Bargain Hunt, a staple on HGTV, rarely features a house on the Gulf Coast these days that isn’t sitting on stilts.

Folks in Montana who live in the floodplain might be wise to take note.

While floods are typically less predictable and of shorter duration on our Western rivers, they still destroy homes. And it’s not just those places perched on the riverbank that are in danger. Homes hundreds of yards from the river get flooded, too. Even houses beyond the reach of the floodwater can be damaged by rising groundwater.

The latest flood on the Yellowstone River caused incredible damage, destroying bridges and roads that had survived for decades. But much of what flooded had flooded before. The same houses filled with water in previous floods. Folks who shouldn’t have been were caught by surprise.

If you live on the river bottom expect floods.

Build accordingly.

Or not.

Really? What’s the chance it will ever happen again?

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]