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.
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.
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.
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.
To paraphrase an old cliche
Fool me once, shame in me
Fool me twice, shame on you.
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.
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!
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.