A class on holiness..... give a listen, the backdrop is an argument in the Talmud between a Samaritan (Kusi) and a rabbi...about the geography of the flood. Worth the 50 minutes:
http://theyeshiva.net/Video/View/98/Can-Holy-People-and-Places-Become-Corrupt
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
I've also heard that the actual flood waters did not flood 'Eretz Yisra'el as they did the rest of the earth so that the bodies of the dead could be quickly buried afterwards before they defiled the land.