You are absolutely, positively correct. I lived in SoCal for 30 years. Time after time, it was the same old story: fire, then flood. They've built major roads in riverbeds, housing tracts in flood plains, & built houses on stilts on steeply inclined hills. You want to get out of the hills fast? Too bad.

Here in western WA, it's the same old game: Fill in the low spots & build on them (aka take the money & run); the next time it rains heavily, that spot may remain above flood, but the water that is displaced is now running into other homes & businesses. Cut & fill on the hillsides, then log off the top & steeper slope above the houses -- what do they THINK is going to happen? Your choice of earthquake or mudslide, & it all slides down the hill and everyone whines "Somebody should do something!"

The most important thing that people should be taught from infancy is consequences. Whatever choices you make, there will be repercussions, good & bad. Guaranteed.

A man once said that you can argue with the laws of physics all you want, but you're going to lose.

Sue