[TheForge] flooding

[Andy Gladish]

I really don't understand why the Gov. is involved in flood insurance.
Within FEMA it's the most hated program (I have family members that work
there) The just roll their eyes, but Congress won't have it any other way.

There wouldn't be much development there if insurance wasn't subsidized-
only those who can pay cash for a home would live there.

When you talk about forcibly removing people and paying them for the land,
there's not a chance in hell that we'd be able to pay them what a sandbox
or nature preserve is worth rather than what a building site would be
worth, sad to say.

What we'll do is NOT accept that there's no nice, cheap, quick solution and
that it's a problem that has to be faced squarely, I'm guessing, though you
never know- people are pretty resourceful when they see no other option.

Andy



Bruce wrote:
Not BAIL out, BUY out.  Pay them what the LAND is worth.  What's strip
of sand worth if you can't build on it (part of the deal)? Yes, it
will cost money, but it will save money and lives -- some of those
lives being the first responders who won't have to go in there to save
the damn fools who try to ride out the storms.  If they ever empty the
barrier islands of buildings, they can let nature take its course.
Historically, those islands move -- new inlets form, old ones close,
the shift "bodily" a LOT.  The Shrewsbury River used to empty into the
sea, but is now blocked by a sea wall in Monmouth Beach that taxpayers
maintain.  The whole thing's a scam, and I wouldn't mind seeing those
houses wash into the ocean.  But 20 years or go or so, illegal holders
of riparian lands were grandfathered in, and now hold the land legally
-- one of the stupidest mistakes in recent history.  Oh, well, second
to the Citizens United case that gave rich people and corporations
more "freedom of speech" than the rest of us.

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 10:30 AM, Andrew Vida <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:
>
>
> On 11/6/2012 5:56 AM, Bruce . wrote:
>> For years we've been saying about folks on those barrier islands, "One
>> good hurricane..."  Well, Sandy was pretty good.  Most of the damage
>> was to people on the barrier islands.  I am writing to the governor
>> (who actually hung around for the storm this time -- him and his
>> Lt.Gov. too!  Imagine that!) that the state should buy out the
>> destroyed properties (at land value -- these people can collect on
>> their insurance for the rest) and turn it back into untenanted barrier
>> islands.  Then take some FEMA money and settle these folks on higher
>> ground.  It's a situation analogous to New Orleans.  If you build in
>> Nature's path, you're going to get wiped out sooner or later.
>
> Taxpayer money to bail out the landowners in Seaside?  I'm sure that
> would go over like a lead balloon.  You're talking about several
> billions in real estate at the very least.  Then what?  Remediation of
> the detritus would be billions more.  Billions more to rebuild the
> coastline... perhaps tens of billions.  Remember when they redid the
> beaches at Asbury Park and Manasquan?  Those two miserable stretches
> totaling what... MAYBE 2.5 miles was over $250 million as I recall.  I
> used to go out and watch them pump the sand... which was pretty
> impressive, but what a waste of money.  Two years later the beaches were
> back to their eroded states.  Hello.  To rebuild what I would bet is at
> least 50 to 70 miles of beach would be lunacy, but I'd bet that is
> exactly what they would propose.  The glazier's fallacy on steroids
> running amok in NJ. =8^o

-- 
Andy Gladish, Element Fe Metal Studio
Blacksmithing and Blades
7141 Guemes Island Road, Anacortes, WA 98221
Phone: 360.202.1160
Andy at ElementFe.com

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