Part of the reason we have seen such a boom in building on the Gulf
coast and other hazardous places is that federal flood insurance is
subsidized. Furthermore, people know that FEMA will be ther to help em
out if they do something hazardous and get clobbered. Now I have no
objection to FEMA helping those who really didnt know they were in
peril but many people know and choose to think they are owed help when
it happens.
If we ended subsidized insurance it would help a lot to keep people
from doing stupid things. The State of FL foolishly has a pool of
money they use to help underwrite expensivre insurance on otherwise
unimsurable property and the rest of us in Fl subsidize it. This
drives me nuts. Why should I subsidize some foolish yankee who comes
down here to retire and builds on the beach.
The hazard does not go away just cuz you are not on the beach either,
there are 100 yr flood areas and even 200 yr flood areas but they dont
count the 200 yr ones which is about the time between major storm
surges in some areas.
my 'guess" is that most of the problems we are seeing from Katrina are
the product of govt subsidy of insurance that makes it possible for
people to do foolish things.M