03-26-2014, 05:07 AM
quote:
Originally posted by hawaiian
I do understand that the big island has a active volcano.But where do you think is the safest place to buy land to build a home besides in the city's of Kona and Hilo? I have been looking at the the resent lava flow maps is there any safe place???
Aloha, hawaiian:
Hawaii is blessed with a greater variety of hazards, and more intense aggregate hazards, than pretty much any place else in the other 49 states. There's no place absolutely safe - but you get to choose your poison. I've listed several sites below that will give you a look at what hazards you are likely to encounter state wide.
This site is a (surprisingly good) site provided by State Civil Defense that allows you to see the current tsunami evacuation maps for Hawaii: http://www.scd.hawaii.gov/
there's quite a bit of other hazard/risk information on this page as well.
For a related risk, storm surge, I wasn't able to find a risk map - probably because the risk is so condition specific (e.g. wind direction, storm intensity) - but this site may be useful: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/hnl/
In general, though, if you are outside of the tsunami evacuation zone you should be "safe".
This one shows the lava flow hazard zones (courtesy of USGS) and explains how the zones were defined: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/hazards/lavazones/main.html
This one shows what could be called an earthquake hazard map for the state - but, as far as I'm aware, doesn't include a characteristic called "site amplification" responsible for much higher damage rates for structures built on soft soils (look up Cypress Structure, Oakland for what happens when you have that process). The relevance to Hawaii is that a home built on deep soils in Hamakua will suffer much more intense earthquake shaking than a similar house built on bedrock in Hilo for the same earthquake.
http://www.fema.gov/earthquake/earthquake-hazard-maps
(Added: for this one as well as others like hurricanes, how well built your house is, makes more of a difference than where it's built.)
This site allows you to look at a parcel's location with respect to the flood hazards. And this one is important for everyone: there is a move - recently described in the news media - to reduce the subsidies provided to homeowners insured under the National Flood Insurance Program - if you are living in a flood prone area, your insurance rates are projected to go ballistic - rates of $30K per year were quoted in the paper. In certain (high) flood risk areas, no insurance, no mortgage.
http://gis.hawaiinfip.org/FHAT/
And this one is the wild card: hurricane risk maps haven't really been developed but this site will show you the hurricane tracks in the central Pacific recorded over the last several decades. The "urban myth" that Hawaii island is protected from hurricane impacts by the high mountains is myth. And all it takes is one Iniki (https://gowiggle.wordpress.com/2010/06/2...ane-iniki/) tracking across Hawaii Island and a lot of people will be crying...
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/met/Faculty/...hurricane/
Then there's vog: http://weather.hawaii.edu/vmap/
If you or your family is prone to asthma, you may want to pay close attention to this one...
and wildland fires: probably best to look at the interactive rainfall maps to get your best idea of where the risks are greatest - although it will vary with season and annual drought intensity: http://rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/int...vemap.html
Bet you didn't know that living in Paradise was so risky...