Whenever I hear about the poor b*ggers waiting for months to get back into
their flood damaged houses I always wonder whether the repairs shouldn't
just stop at "repair" but should be aimed at making a house flood resistant.

By this I don't mean "keep the water out" as I suspect that this is actually
very hard to achieve. I'm thinking more of waterproof non-absorbant walls
(possibly tiled) downstairs, all electricty cables coming from upstairs (or
from the loft) *down* rather than from under the floor up, solid concrete
floors downstairs and maybe even a floating "raft" floor on top of the
concrete floor for your furniture that would float on top of flood waters
keeping your valuables dry.

How much of the above is practical? Would it be terribly expensive? What
other measures could one incorportate to make recovery from a flood in a
flood prone area just an inconvenience rather than a disaster?

Tim