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 islands 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 homes 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.
Its the risk you take living on a barrier isle, says Satterfield, whose familys company was recently inducted into the Towing Hall of Fame. At the same time, theres 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 ...
I wonder why folks who use the freeboard area as living space don’t have a false floor with a set of pulley cables and a winch to lift the whole thing 3 or 4 feet off the ground when flooding is possible.
To paraphrase an old cliche
Fool me once, shame in me
Fool me twice, shame on you.
ANYONE who works on or around the highway is really taking their lives in their hands — cops, construction crews, tow operators. There are too many inconsiderate a**holes on the road who don't care enough to slow down and pay attention.
I've witnessed the aftermaths of some horrendous tractor trailer wrecks in mountain country. Those towing guys have to be intuitive engineers working on practically vertical embankments in rain/sleet/snow — and at all hours of the day and night. It's a nasty, dangerous job that I wouldn't want, no matter what the pay. Definitely hats off to those guys.
1. Raise the federal premiums 10% a year.
2. After 2021, set the minimum federal premium equal to 3% of property market value.
3. Federal payouts after 2018 to be placed as liens subordinate to mortgages existing as of the last day of the month prior to damage.
4. Repayment of federal payouts after 2018 to take place over 30 years.
5. Failure to make a repayment means loss of all future federal coverage.
The federal government gradually needs to get out of this flood insurance business.
“I don’t know why the gov’t is in the insurance business in the first place.”
It’s like New Orleans and Puerto Rico.
People expect federal handouts.
The idea was to have people pay a little towards federal risk.
Unfortunately, federal coverage has encouraged building in flood prone places.
Once there was a cheap shack by the sea. Now that shack has been replaced by a mansion.
Yeah...we aren’t heartless, and we respect heritage and history, but...we don’t like being taken for a ride by a grinning face!
Didn’t think you were. I found new appreciation for those guys after watching a few episodes of that show.
I used to drive buses for a Christian youth camp as a volunteer and for a ski club. At the peak, I maybe drove 3000 miles a year. Not much at all.
It’s amazing how things get in your blood. I can talk buses all day.
I used to work for a company that sold some products to bus manufacturers. One guy called me to inquire about something. As he started to tell me where it was located, I told him what model bus it was and where he could find it. He had never come across a supplier who was an actual bus guy before. I’m sure towers and anyone else who has expertise in their line of work is the same.
Being able to get flood insurance in a flood zone at less than usury rate premiums doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.
If you want to live in these places, the taxpayers should not have to pay for damage to your place.
Look at historical flooding in an area, how much it happen and the damage totals; then spread that out over the month. That is how much your insurance payments should be, funded by yourself and the other people that “have” to live in these places.
Who would have below grade living quarters in a flood zone? stupid bunny!
A cheap shack by the sea is a beautiful thing.
Don’t build more house than you can afford to see washed away.
But government intervention has completely distorted the beach real estate market, and this distortion is causing people to do all thinks of things that make no objective sense.
Anyone on Tybee Is GA is there by choice of significant wealth.
We should cut all welfare. But the rich should go first. No welfare to those who choose, nay, invite victimhood.
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