Coos Bay a Flood Hazard Area? (Bend, North Bend: for sale, insurance, houses)

[okeon]

We have definatly decided to move to the Bay area in August, but what I am wondering is if it is in a flood hazard area. Does it flood quite frequently? Are you required to have flood insurance on a new mortgage? Also is there a tsunami warning system?

[Waterlily]

I live in the Bay area but not in Coos Bay. I am not required to carry flood insurance on my house. There are a few areas that can flood once in a while.

There are 2 things you can do to prevent this. Talk to your Realtor before you go examine houses for sale. Tell them that you don't want in an area that is likely to flood or requires flood insurance. We did this before we bought our house and it worked out just fine. The Realtor should know all the areas that have flooded in the past.
They are putting a Tsunami warning system in and there are tsunami maps that show places most likely to get hit.

Secondly just use some logic when you look at a property. It may have a nice view but, is it sitting low by the water? Myself I like to buy on high land.


Good luck with your move. Most of us who live here really enjoy it.

[seashelly]

I do know that sometimes during the winter months after several days of substantial rainfall (1 inch or more in a day) along with an extreme low/high tide, Highway 101 thru downtown Coos Bay, the street sewer lids will be bouncing and the merchants stack sandbags along their storefront entrances but that's not very often.

As for tsunami warnings in the Bay Area, the Charleston system is recently up and running and the whole Bay Area is posted with evacuation route signs and there are regular tsunami walk-thru evacuation drills in the schools so we are aware.

[randav]

While occasionally there are floods that cause the manhole covers on Hwy 101 to rise, they are rare. Such floods are not technically floods, but extreem high tides that occur when heavy rain fills the rivers and wind holds the tide in. They affect only those portions of Coos Bay that are close to sea level, as Hwy 101 is as it goes along the bay. The same phenomenon occurs in the flat bottom lands along the rivers and streams that used to be tidal flats. These were protected with levees and tide gates, but every so often (3 to 5 years) the combination of rain and wind held tides overtop the levees or the levees fail due to saturation. Most of the area in and around Coos Bay is well above sea level and the reach of tides.
The greater problem cause by heavy rain is landslide. In areas where the land has been disturbed (cuts, fills and clear cutting) the land is unstable and when soaked by long periods of significant rain, will slump or slide. Roads often suffer. Just be sure your house is neither close above or below altered land.

[Waterlily]

Here's the thread I was looking for about the tsunami information. We have not had a tsunami here. Just a couple of weeks ago they were trying out a new tsunami warning siren in North Bend. They'll soon have more of them.

[Deserter]

I just wanted to add to what Randav said about buying near disturbed land. My home in Northern CA was destroyed by a mudslide ten years ago. The source of the slide was an abandoned logging road that had been built 40 years before using unsafe methods. If you're near hills you might want to pay a little extra to have a qualified geologist check the areas above and below. Also, research the history of logging on surrounding land. It's worth the extra effort. By the way, flood insurance (when I had to buy it postslide) was not that expensive and covers things that your regular homeowner's insurance doesn't. You'd be surprised what your regular insurance does NOT cover.