Today I went to a meeting about how the county is going to go about tearing down the houses that were substantially damaged in the floods. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and not just because my house isn't one of them; it was just nice to get some information about what is planned for our area.

I was talking to one of the county guys, and found out I would be better off fixing my flood-damaged cabin back to pre-flood condition rather than leaving it because when a house is in the floodplain, you can only spend 50% of its value over a ten year period fixing it up. If I don't restore it now, there would be only 30% left of that 50% and that would affect the resale value.

Floodplain regulations are very strange, and they are so convoluted and counterintuitive nobody ever explains them all at one time - you have to learn it in layers.

Tomorrow the hydrologist is coming to tell me what to do about the river banks. This is a big moment, and I hope I'm not disappointed.

Today I found out that the county is not going to let us leave the flood debris on our land; landowners will have 3 years to remove it. I wasn't so concerned about mine because we can get to most of it, and volunteers are coming to help. Also, the one really bad spot is right next to a county park, and I am sure they will clean it up. My neighbor, on the other hand, has tons of debris across the river so they need a large piece of equipment to get across the river and fetch the debris, and then big trucks to haul it off. It will cost at least $50,000. We'll have to see how that works out.