Article

2012-11-04 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

FEMA may not have enough for flood damages

Sandy has flooded thousands of homes in its devastating path, and estimates are that damages will in the billions of dollars. FEMA, which runs the federal flood insurance program, has to pick up the tab.

But FEMA already owes $18 billion to the Treasury Department, thanks to Hurricane Katrina. Currently, insurance experts say FEMA's flood insurance program has access to funds totaling $3.8 billion, much of it in loans.

If flood claims exhaust the fund, Congress may have to step in with additional taxpayer money. That will add to the already bloated national deficit, and anger fiscally-conservative members of Congress.

Private insurers don't cover flooding. Sandy's storm surge pushed water from the Atlantic Ocean into basements and first floors in coastal Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York, where subway tunnels remain flooded.

Posted by Au Auric 2012-11-04 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 Hopefully, taxpayer funding from "Right to Work" states will be turned away.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-11-04 04:36|| 2012-11-04 04:36|| Front Page Top

#2 Like the Obamacare taxes, the FEMA taxes are being stealthily applied. They're having an 'outside' firm re-surveying flood plains without using basic considerations to include the record of water fall, just height with no reference to volume. They arbitrarily choose a 'hundred year' or 'thousand year' mark then follow the topographical features. Home owners get letters from their mortgage companies saying they're in flood plains and must purchase flood insurance. Areas that haven't seen waters since man has been on the continent are receiving such letters. It's all done magically with 'regulations'. Got to make up that 18 billion some how.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-11-04 09:04|| 2012-11-04 09:04|| Front Page Top

#3 Private insurers don't cover flooding, BECAUSE IT'S STUPID TO BUILD ON FLOOD PLAINS!

Why is the Government crating moral hazard with these tax-wasting subsidies for reckless land development?!?

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-11-04 18:20|| 2012-11-04 18:20|| Front Page Top

#4 re: Flood-plain mapping. If you have a project that impacts the flood plain by more than 1' you are required to file a CLOMR (Conditional Letter of map revision) prior to regulatory approval, and a final LOMR (yeah). There should be no surprises..

Re: Quake insurance. I do not pay for it, Single family homes (wood/stucco) are the most forgiving structures in a quake. I also believe that if a quake is big enough to do widespread damage in a So Cal metropolis, ~~I'll~~ My grandchildren will be getting pennies on my claim when it's resolved

Posted by Frank G 2012-11-04 19:00|| 2012-11-04 19:00|| Front Page Top

#5 Why is the Government crating moral hazard with these tax-wasting subsidies for reckless land development?!?
Because stupid people who build on flood plains count for more than the rest of the electorate, something like that.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-11-04 19:00|| 2012-11-04 19:00|| Front Page Top

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