09-05-2006, 03:20 PM
I am strangley drawn to Puna. I'm from California, but I lived in New Orleans for awhile, right in the French Quarter. What made New Orleans great, aside from the food, the music, and the sheer sultriness of the place, was its people. Every square peg that didn't fit into a round hole in other cities in the South just floated on down the river to New Orleans where they found kindreds spirts, and where those spirits created a delightful eccentricity that was greater than the sum of its parts.
I haven't been to Puna (remember that Three Dog Night song --well, I've never been to blank?"
but my research suggests that it might have some of that flavor.
The idea of buckets and buckets of rain puts me off. And there are other things: low-rent people giving stinkeye, coquis and people who want to hug them, D-9-s in lava tubes, and, oh, yes, LAVA.
The thing that stopped me in my tracks about Puna was LAVA. I know Hawaii is volcanic, but, ya know, but the idea of lava reaching out and destroying my home is very disturbing to me.
That being said, a commentator to one of my threads pointed out that lava is not really a mortal danger (generally). Instead, at worst, it will eat your property.
I am trying to get some quotes from Pyramid Insurance on some properties I was interested in (having a little trouble -- they presume I live in it, want to know if I am married and so forth...). Anyway, the conclusion I have come to is this: the volcano is powerful and might blow up. The whole island might blow up. However, the more likely risk is simply that lava will come spreading in your general direction, and (hopefully) set fire to your house (rather than entombing it quietly).
In that case, insurance, in the amount of perhaps a few thousand a year in zone two, will cover you. Property taxes in Puna are low, and so the extra expense for fire insurance (lava insurance for when your house gets torced by lava) is offset at least somewhat by the lower property taxes.
If lava comes, you will have plenty of warning because the US geological survey has a place right near the caldera, and they will tell us. (Is there a siren?).
The worst that will happen is that you will lose your house. When that happens you are compensated --at least to some degree-- for.....for your house? What about land? Not land, right?
Pele pulls me. Give her a hand.
I haven't been to Puna (remember that Three Dog Night song --well, I've never been to blank?"
but my research suggests that it might have some of that flavor. The idea of buckets and buckets of rain puts me off. And there are other things: low-rent people giving stinkeye, coquis and people who want to hug them, D-9-s in lava tubes, and, oh, yes, LAVA.
The thing that stopped me in my tracks about Puna was LAVA. I know Hawaii is volcanic, but, ya know, but the idea of lava reaching out and destroying my home is very disturbing to me.
That being said, a commentator to one of my threads pointed out that lava is not really a mortal danger (generally). Instead, at worst, it will eat your property.
I am trying to get some quotes from Pyramid Insurance on some properties I was interested in (having a little trouble -- they presume I live in it, want to know if I am married and so forth...). Anyway, the conclusion I have come to is this: the volcano is powerful and might blow up. The whole island might blow up. However, the more likely risk is simply that lava will come spreading in your general direction, and (hopefully) set fire to your house (rather than entombing it quietly).
In that case, insurance, in the amount of perhaps a few thousand a year in zone two, will cover you. Property taxes in Puna are low, and so the extra expense for fire insurance (lava insurance for when your house gets torced by lava) is offset at least somewhat by the lower property taxes.
If lava comes, you will have plenty of warning because the US geological survey has a place right near the caldera, and they will tell us. (Is there a siren?).
The worst that will happen is that you will lose your house. When that happens you are compensated --at least to some degree-- for.....for your house? What about land? Not land, right?
Pele pulls me. Give her a hand.