Yes, it's probably located right next to the World's Largest Ball of Twine.
Posted on 12/04/2017 10:05:37 AM PST by Jagermonster
SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS Congress faces a Dec. 8 deadline to mend a federal flood insurance program that runs chronic imbalances in an era of rising flood risks and densely populated coastal areas.
TYBEE ISLAND, GA.—Outwardly, David Satterfield's quiet neighborhood on this barrier island’s southern tip looks pretty much like it always does. But Mr. Satterfield says the veneer is false. In fact, his world was shattered this fall.
The hurricane claimed his man cave.
The final lashes of hurricane Irma colluded with a full-moon “king tide” to flood large parts of Tybee Island for the second time in less than a year. Much of the island already up on eight-foot stilts. But rooms below a home’s “freeboard,” or bottom floor – many of them turned into man caves, apparently – were hit along with entire homes sunk in three feet of storm surge. For Mr. Satterfield and hundreds of other homeowners, that means TVs, stuffed chairs, and other furnishings of a well-used basement were lost to flood waters that rose to heights not seen for more than 80 years.
In response, Satterfield is spending a fall afternoon building shelves – to put his prized belongings above any future inundation. His flurry of sawing, sweating, and bolting underscores a personal shift in priorities caused by a historic storm season – and a sense of creeping threat from the ocean.
“It’s the risk you take” living on a barrier isle, says Satterfield, whose family’s company was recently inducted into the Towing Hall of Fame. “At the same time, there’s only so much money.”
Amid a record year of costly hurricane strikes, Congress has until Dec. 8 to fix a federal flood insurance program that Bob Hunter, its former administrator, tells the Monitor “is failing in every way.”
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Key takeaway - Congress doesn't want to let the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) "set premiums commendurate with risk."
Towing Hall of Fame?...........................
Taxpayers should not be insuring homes (mostly second ones) on barrier islands that are frequently hit by hurricanes.
You want to build in flood prone areas, assume the risk.
Yes, it's probably located right next to the World's Largest Ball of Twine.
Just one more thing the government should not be doing. It feels good to help those people who were flooded, but the private market should manage the risk. Don’t care if it is a primary or second home, the market would manage just fine.
A few years back, my brother and I went to visit our uncle in Florida, and on the way home, had a guy sitting in our row we struck up a conversation with.
He was on his way from a “Repo Man” convention. And not a convention like a bunch of Trekkies or Star War people, but...a convention of people whose job it is to repossess cars!
It was fascinating. He said people try all kinds of tricks (like parking the car in the middle of a bunch of other cars) but he said they can get even those...:)
It was entertaining to listen to him...who would have thought it? A Repo Man Convention!
Codes require that houses be placed on 8’silts (sometimes higher)Anything below the house must have “blow out walls”,and it’s not for ANY living space.
Build there and its on your dime
You are correct. The foolish man builds his house upon the sand. The flood insurance program actually is tax payer subsidized reinsurance for the banks who issue the mortgages.
My plan would be as follows: Whatever federal insurance programs or underwriting currently in force would remain in force until the day after paying out the next restitution check. After that, that particular home, farm, etc. could never again be insured by the government for that particular type of hazard (storm, flood, tornado, or whatever). Over time, investments, their evaluations, and the companies that insure them would reach a new level playing field. You want to own beachfront property? Be my guest! Just don't expect me to pay the bill for your second storm.
Well, there was a movie and a TV series.....................
I don't know why the gov't is in the insurance business in the first place. The people who bought there knew the risks going in and, unless they're willing to let the US population share their home, I see no reason to subsidize their insurance.
The life of a Towing Hall of Fame member is always intense.
Grrrrrrr. It is one thing for someone to lose their home and have the government pay for it.
It is another thing to have someone grin and say this is just fine because they get a new home every few years at my expense.
I can just see someone with that response, too.
I have always been a supporter of helping people who lose their homes, but not of this continual seaside disaster stuff.
I could even support the “Lose the house once, we help, after that you are on your own for the life of the house” (so even if the house changes owners, you don’t get another grab at the ring...)
You buy that house that has already been rebuilt, and you get sticker shock at the insurance cost...well, that’s life.
I knew a guy who towed cars for a living, and the stories he told made me resolve never to have that job unless there was absolutely no other way to put bread on the table.
Not just the gory part. All the hours, being out in all weather, the strange behavior exhibited by people all the time...ugh.
http://internationaltowingmuseum.org/
If you’ve not seen it, there’s a show called Highway through Hell. It’s on Netflix and YouTube.
It showcases a handful of towing and recovery specialists in Canada. The show certainly overdramatizes stuff, but these guys perform a needed function and certainly put themselves at risk. The towing museum has a Wall of the Fallen, honoring the 20 or so tow truck drivers who are killed on the highway annually.
I guess that’s worth a hall of fame.
I love Tybee Island. There are some beautiful old homes that were built for officers during the Spanish American War and are now B&Bs. The old fort is still there and is used as a storm shelter. Most of those old homes are built further in as opposed to all the people who built right on the beach. People weren’t as stupid back then I guess.
It should be limited to one new house per lifetime. After that you’re on your own. He knew his man cave would flood. Like, duh. Any livable space below X feet should not be covered.
Not hurricane or coastal but we live on a “constant level” lake. At one time it was fairly constant back when we had actual human beings operating the water levels and personally checking the gauges and stationed at the dams. Today, it’s mainly run by some pea brain sitting behind his computer screen two hours away. They don’t understand that pouring a mile wide of water through a narrow river bed a 100 ft wide might just cause the water level to rise and flood homes. They don’t understand that just because water tends to flow down stream that it will flow upstream when the dam below is blocking the downward flow. Elementary stuff. Not rocket science. We’ve had more flooding the past few years than the past 50+. So, these days, the same mentality of home owners build “man caves” by digging out the hill and under their homes which WILL flood. And they’ve built in the low lying areas (can you say Houston? Hello! Surprise, it flooded.). 23 feet on the last big flood. It’s no wonder they’d had to move the 100 year flood plain area so we’re now in it. All because people are stupid and becoming more so every day.
We went to the Outer Banks for vacation. Loved it.
But the whole are is maybe two FEET above sea level at high tide.
I told my wife that the first major storm, I am getting in the van and heading to Rocky Mount.
Where I grew up, the flood insurance will pay out once, but only if you move your house/farm or build a dike on your own dime. Of course, it rebuilds the “nice” towns all the time.
From the article:
*****He looked up and down Lewis Avenue, worst-hit by the storm, and realized the core of the problem: severe repetitive loss. While repeatedly flooded homes make up just 2 percent of the program’s 5 million policies, they account for roughly 30 percent of flood claims*****
Now the memories are flooding back....but only the memories. I lived on Lewis Ave. Tybee Island in the 60’s - my MIL home. Built in 1956 -cost $9K and on the market in 2006 for $600k!!!!!
Lewis Ave was a working class neighborhood, small cottages, no stilts, no basements - just a few crabbing docks and nothing fancy.
Mostly a tourist destination and only a few thousand fulltime residents.
The most dangerous flood prone area would be the highway from Savannah to the Island. Long and low over the tidal marsh and river.
Oh, the memories.
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