Get Ready, Florida

It's beginning to look like Tampa ans Pinellas County will catch a break. Irma is projected to be down to an 85 mph category one storm by the time it gets to them.
 

jujube said:
Hangover, do you think there is any way you can give this a rest for a while? Or at least, leave the hurricane thread and start your own thread? It was getting annoying and now it's getting very annoying.
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Sometimes, on these online forums, you can learn quite a bit about a person by the "name" they chose. In many cases, a Hangover is the result of an Addiction.
 
Pappy said:
We will be leaving to our home in Florida around the 10th of October. If it does go up the east coast, we can kiss everything goodbye unless it weakens a whole lot. I don't know which is worst. Sitting up here in NY or being down there going nuts worrying about where to go to get away from this monster.
Drink that vodka now, jujube, and keep your fingers crossed that it stays south.
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I think being down there would be worse, at least for me it would.
 

Trade said:
After the 2004 Hurricanes my homeowners insurance went from about $600 a year to $1600 a year. And that was without me filing a claim and being on high ground 75 miles inland. And it never went down again.

My boss at the time was living on Vero Beach and commuting. His went up to $10,000 a year. But he was a real player. He got hit by two hurricanes and probably made about $30-$50,000 off of them. He really knew how to play the system. On both mandatory evacuations he rented a motor home and went on vacation. Once to Chicago, and once out to Nevada. All paid for by insurance. Plus he got two free chainsaws and two free generators from FEMA. He had a contractor buddy who repaired his house for about 1/2 of what he got from his insurance. After the Hurricane season was over he bought a bunch of new clothes and a new truck.

Ya gotta remember this was right before the 2004 election. And Bush and his brother Jeb, who was governor of Florida at the time made sure Florida got taken care of big time.
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Why in the world does Florida (and Houston, and wherever else) allow people to build on land that has been flooded over and over? This makes no sense to me. Don't they have to get building permits, etc.? I saw one guy on one of the video news things (I think he was in Houston) who was saying how this was the fourth time he had been wiped out by floods and he was going to rebuild. I just don't understand that. He didn't look or sound like a wealthy guy playing the system, but who knows; the wealthy guys aren't running around in their $2,000 suits in that kind of weather. I do believe I'd move somewhere else, no matter what my ties to the area were.
 
Butterfly said:
Why in the world does Florida (and Houston, and wherever else) allow people to build on land that has been flooded over and over? This makes no sense to me. Don't they have to get building permits, etc.? I saw one guy on one of the video news things (I think he was in Houston) who was saying how this was the fourth time he had been wiped out by floods and he was going to rebuild. I just don't understand that. He didn't look or sound like a wealthy guy playing the system, but who knows; the wealthy guys aren't running around in their $2,000 suits in that kind of weather. I do believe I'd move somewhere else, no matter what my ties to the area were.
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Of course he's going to rebuild. And you and I are going to pay for it.

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/08/08/hidden-subsidy-rich-flood-insurance-000495
 
But don't those rebuilding have to get building permits, and couldn't the state/city refuse to issue those permits?

For instance, here, an unscrupulous developer sold land basically in the bottom of an arroyo to some very low income people and those people could not get building permits. In the case of some people who built on the land anyway, the authorities refused to certify buildings for occupancy, which means no utilities, no insurance, etc., and gave them a deadline to either remove the structures or the county would come in and remove them.

The purchasers of the land were able to successfully sue the jerk who sold the land to them for fraud, etc., and got some of their money back.

Anyway, my point is, does owning the piece of land in the middle of the flood plain give one the legal right to keep building on it?

I read with interest the article you posted. I did not know how those federal subsidies for flood insurance worked. Seems to me like that just perpetuates the problem, or am I missing something? I mean if your flood insurance is going to be hugely subsidized, then there isn't much deterrent to building in the great big middle of an area that has historically flooded??
 
Butterfly said:
Anyway, my point is, does owning the piece of land in the middle of the flood plain give one the legal right to keep building on it?
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One thing I heard during the Texas floods was that some of the Houston residential areas have been built below the large reservoirs...which even the Army Corp of Engineers had designated as a Flood Plain many years ago. That should have told both the suburb developers, AND the people buying these houses that there was a high degree if risk involved. Obviously, any zoning restrictions were either ignored, or bypassed, to allow some of these areas to be built...if such restrictions even existed to begin with.

I will be quite surprised if home insurance doesn't rise substantially in the next year or two....all over the nation...to help offset the huge costs associated with these storms.
 
Don M. said:
One thing I heard during the Texas floods was that some of the Houston residential areas have been built below the large reservoirs...which even the Army Corp of Engineers had designated as a Flood Plain many years ago. That should have told both the suburb developers, AND the people buying these houses that there was a high degree if risk involved. Obviously, any zoning restrictions were either ignored, or bypassed, to allow some of these areas to be built...if such restrictions even existed to begin with.

I will be quite surprised if home insurance doesn't rise substantially in the next year or two....all over the nation...to help offset the huge costs associated with these storms.
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You can bet on it. These insurance companies aren't benevolent charities and they'll be passing their losses onto all and sundry to pay their stockholders.
 
Don M. said:
One thing I heard during the Texas floods was that some of the Houston residential areas have been built below the large reservoirs...which even the Army Corp of Engineers had designated as a Flood Plain many years ago. That should have told both the suburb developers, AND the people buying these houses that there was a high degree if risk involved. Obviously, any zoning restrictions were either ignored, or bypassed, to allow some of these areas to be built...if such restrictions even existed to begin with.

I will be quite surprised if home insurance doesn't rise substantially in the next year or two....all over the nation...to help offset the huge costs associated with these storms.
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Houston has no zoning regulations....the city is free from that 'government restriction':rolleyes:
 
I'm no expert, but when my DD did a tear-down and build new, they were required to build up the foundation of the new house...I think about 3.5 feet above ground level. This was in Houston, in an area considered flood plain of some kind. Good thing also, probably saved their house during Harvey! The older houses in the area weren't required to be built that way.
 
Irma wasn't all bad. These are some awesome waves!

 

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