I’m with you, if there were over 100 people still missing, I don’t believe it could be hidden. Not disputing anyone’s report, and there will certainly be bodies never recovered, but thousands?
And on the land grab speculation, it’s certain to make some people angry when where their house stood is now an unbuildable mud flat - or now, half of your land is IN the river. It can never be fully replaced. I can see a lot of ‘eminent domain’ actions though, putting back together the roads and utilities. I’m hoping the Trump admin makes this a priority to help these folks.
A great deal of that land will no longer be usable for building roads, homes or business. But people will adapt. I am basing what I said on comments by Cooper. To be fair Cooper may have been referring to buying up land no longer habitable. After Coopers speech, an article appeared about the area destroyed in Hawaii. Government took control of the land. Some commentators felt that was Coopers intent. People who live in Appalachia generally want to live there (cannot blame them) and will want to rebuild. They are not going to sell out.