On Wed, 13 Sep 2017 08:22:48 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

On 9/13/17 7:58 AM, justan wrote:


Governor Rick Scott has been getting high marks for his efforts to
prepare Florida for the disaster.


Does that make up for the huge criminal enterprise Scott ran prior to
being governor? You know, the one that earned a $1.7 billion fine for
Medicare fraud?

Florida is not prepared. If Scott really were concerned about Florida,
he'd be spearheading a statewide effort to stop development in low-lying
coastal areas, and begin a process of condemning and tearing down
susceptible structures in those areas, outlawing mobile homes, and
slowing growth generally. Florida is going to get hit again and again
and again by these large summer and fall hurricanes, and everyone is
going to pace the price for them.

We have a low-lying area a few miles north of here, called Chesapeake
Beach, a quaint little nameplace full of old cottages and a growing
amount of new construction. Nice place, except when Chesapeake Bay
overflows and floods homes and businesses for four blocks up from the
high water line. That area is a foot or two above sea level. Maybe. Why
construction in these places is allowed is beyond my comprehension.

I think the national flood insurance program ought to be dropped and
replaced by a state-by-state funded program for those states that want
it. Let Floridians, Texas, Louisianians, et cetera, pay the price for
their folly of never-ending construction along low-lying waterfronts,
typically built on "reclaimed" land. Alternately, if the states won't
provide flood insurance and mortage companies won't finance homes
without flood insurance, well, that eventually will solve the problem.

Oh, we're close to the Bay, but...we're about 115' above sea level here.
If the Bay floods us, it is the end of the world.

Florida does have strict rules about rebuilding after a flood or
really any renovation for any reason that involves more that 50% of
the assessed value of the building (not the lot).
It all has to be done at the FEMA height. (14' above the datum plane
near water)
That pretty much eliminates most additions or even serious repairs
without raising the house or tearing it down. A guy in our
neighborhood just bough a $460k house and immediately tore it down,
just because of insurance cost and limits on remodeling.