[TheForge] flooding

Tue Nov 6 18:31:54 EST 2012

Mantoloking doesn't HAVE any building lots anymore -- not off the tax
rolls, anyway.  Their infrastructure was completely destroyed.  No
sewer.  No water.  No gas. No electric.  No phone or cable.  All gone,
except for shreds and flotsam.  The mayor of Mantoloking has stated
that there are NO undamaged homes.  Many of those still standing are
no longer on their foundations.  Some houses literally were washed
into Barnetgat Bay and had to be hauled out.  For all intents and
purposes, the town is no longer there.

But you can just bet it will be rebuilt, largely on the taxpayer's
dollar.  FEMA is Federal, remember -- you're paying too.  And in a
year when most of the housing is rebuilt -- another hurricane might
come through and repeat the whole scene.  If American taxpayers don't
object to this waste of money, well, don't start complaining to me
that your taxes are too high.

BTW, the people have ALREADY been forcibly removed.  And they're
already circulating a petition to be allowed back.  Despite the gas
leaks (since turned off by order of the governor).  Despite the lack
of power.

I just don't get it.  But then I don't get HS football as a mania, so
what do I know?

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 2:06 PM, Andy Gladish <anjgladish at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
> Visit ElementFe Metal Studio on Facebook! Just search for ElementFe and hit
> the "like" button. Lots of photos and updates weekly.
>
> Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human
> life. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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-- 
Bruce
NJ