Friday, January 25, 2013

FEMA and Floodplains

Reason.com talks about a family in Sacramento, CA that can't rebuild their home after a fire. Simply, the house is in a floodplain and FEMA regulations after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the FedGov has been looking at floodplains.

 PawPaw has been covering floodplains since 2005 and the simple truth is that lots of land in Louisiana is considered floodplain. I've lived in floodplains, and I've been flooded out. I understand why the FedGov doesn't want to insure folks who build in places where water might get in the house. It's hugely expensive. 

Still, folks like to live near water, we love the ocean, and we tend to forget that every so often a storm comes along and our lives go sideways. I'll bet that a lot of the folks who got flooded in New Jersey, New York and assorted locales during Sandy are learning that they're in a floodplain. One good sign is if the water comes in under the door. If that happens, you live in a floodplain and your life just got hugely complicated.

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Strangely, they are letting folks in 'other' floodplains rebuild, like NY/NJ...

Gaffer said...

I can't speak for NJ but in NY they are holding to the regulations. There are a lot of older/poorer folk who don't have flood insurance and/or can't afford to rebuild. There are lots of sharks out there who are trying to buy cheap and are taking advantage of the law, and making a killing. Maybe that's the real reason the politicians changed the law.

Gaffer said...

I should add that the people who are rebuilding in the Sandy disaster have flood insurance that applied to their problem and they also have SBA disaster loans available to them. Unlike the couple in California the people here are in a declared disaster and do have help available.

Peripatetic Engineer said...

I suspect that the folks in NY/NJ are just beginning to learn what awaits them as they try to rebuild under FEMA.