[ShakeZula06]

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Insurance and HOAs FTW

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Insurance does not solve the problem at all. When I purchased the house, there was to the best of everyone's knowledge a 0% chance of the river flooding, so insurance would have clearly been -EV. Once the flooding problem has been discovered, no insurance company would insure my house for less than 1 millions dollars. So we would still all be better off building the damn for $750,000 a piece. Not to mention the fact that we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of having our homes destroyed, then collecting a million dollar check.

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The only way there can be a 0% chance is if it's actually been proven that it's impossible, and that's certainly not possible. Either way, there's still a second option, not to mention options that haven't been thought of.

edit-To expand on the insurance thing, it seems obvious that the insurance company in question would have offered some type of flood insurance. Being that we've already established that the chances of this was small, and thus the price for flood insurance is small anyway.

If like almost anyone in the world, the homeowners in question value their homes, it seems entirely likely that they'd buy that insurance, (even if -EV, being that nearly all types of insurance is -EV).

Also, to respond to this part:
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Not to mention the fact that we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of having our homes destroyed, then collecting a million dollar check.

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It's very possible the insurance companies could decide to create the dam. They'd rather pay $7.5 million then $10 million, right?