roflmmfao

I am a former Gulf Coast resident and a responder to Katrina. The answer is hard but simple: No variance unless the taxpayer can be immunized from having to continually pay for private decisions to live in a high-risk areas. And everywhere along the Gulf is high-risk.

Or do we just continue to not learn from our mistakes, and treat these personal choices like our entitlement programs?

M240H on January 24, 2013 at 9:47 PM

Dude, did you not hear him say that the Corps of Civil Engineers had just certified the levees for 100 years prior to their purchase? That means they thought in good faith that they were not in a high risk area like, say, the FRICKIN’ OCEAN shoreline?

There is nothing a government agency can do that congress can’t do… except that congress can be held accountable if they do it. A faceless nameless bureaucrat is like a dictator in a fortress. Untouchable be even congress.

The next step is to make government agencies able to write their own budgets and take whatever money they want without interference from congress.

Once that is accomplished… there will be no need for a congress. They will be powerless to stop any agency from making any rule or law they want to. Lead by a Marxist President… the nation’s fate will be sealed.

My brother recently had FEMA tell him he was in a newly created flood zone. He had to pay $600 for a survey and sure enough FEMA made a mistake, but his elderly neighbors who didn’t have the cash get stuck with buying flood insurance.
halfbaked on January 24, 2013 at 10:31 PM

That’s not such a bad thing. My brother bought a home that was shown to have its floor elevation 4 feet above the 100-year flood level. He wanted to buy flood insurance anyway – its very inexpensive – but was denied. Lo and behold, one year later he had 4 feet of water INSIDE his home and a FEMA check for – $26,000. Everything he had worked for was gone.

Also, flood elevations don’t just get changed 20+ feet at one time. A finished floor of a new home has to be just a couple of feet above the 100-year flood plain to get a permit, and an existing home may be rebuilt if under the flood plain depending on the extent of the damage. So the home must have been built more than 10 or so feet below the flood plain to begin with to now be required to be elevated 20 feet from its existing spot! That means FEMA expects the flood plain to be about 18 feet higher than the current finished floor level. There’s absolutely no sense in rebuilding if that is actually the case, as 18 feet of water will destroy any home.

Of course, FEMA could be off by 20 feet. I designed a building on a river whose official flood map showed the flood elevation 15 feet higher on the north side of the river than the south side.

The reason they have to rebuild in a certain way is they will not receive a construction permit for the fire damage unless they have the building brought up to current code, regardless if the code work is to parts of the building that are not damaged.

LadyGator88 on January 25, 2013 at 9:12 AM

And that is tyranny. As important as building code is in some ways, it is often the first imposition of tyranny on most free individuals. And, a classic method of regulating (instead of legislating) away your freedom.

No normal, law-abiding property owner should have to hope for the passage of a federal law to allow them to rebuild in the wake of a disaster.

Correct version:

No normal, law-abiding property owner should have to worry about a federal law to allow them to build.

“It doesn’t always work out the way we intended.. but we never stop trying.”

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop trying – we do not need or want your help.

What were Reagan’s 8 most dreaded words? “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”

The Taylors have been helped almost to death.

I also liked the quotes FEMA Fascist lady said about half way through… something like.. the city normally could provide a variance, but there again, they are caught by “our guidance.”

Talking like this… she knows exactly what she is saying and doing. And she is enjoying every minute of the raw power she has to destroy people’s lives.

And if this is not stopped… it will get worse and worse. It has to. It’s the law of nature.

That is one of those doozies, that sounds good, until you think about. It is like our unofficial motto at work: “We’re not happy until you’re not happy!”

The fault lies with the Taylors or their insurance agent for not having the proper homeowner’s insurance. Here’s why: The reason they have to rebuild in a certain way is they will not receive a construction permit for the fire damage unless they have the building brought up to current code, regardless if the code work is to parts of the building that are not damaged.

For example, if you have a fire in the kitchen that results in the kitchen electrical needed to be rewired, but have old, aluminum wiring, the bldg code may require the whole house rewired to be brought up to current electrical code. The rest of the house isn’t damaged, but you have to pay for that work in order to get the kitchen repaired. A standard Homeowners policy without endorsements would not cover the work to the rest of the house where there isn’t any fire damage.

There are optional endorsements you can purchase to add to your HO policy, for an additional premium, that will pay for cost due to compliance to building codes.

I think the case was either the broker didn’t offer the endorsement or the Taylors refused it due to additional premium.

Our home was built in the 80s. Hurricane Wilma damages were about $70,0000. Of that, $10,000 wasn’t for wind or physical damage, it was work to bring the house and roof up to code. I had this endorsement.

The 2 main points.

The government is forcing them to buy flood insurance.
The owners would like to rebuild (even raise the house 20 feet), but they can’t spend over $30k on their house, because the government is restricting how much they can spend on rebuilding.

To repeat, the government is forcing them to buy insurance, but preventing them from actually using the insurance to rebuild their house in order to meet government restrictions.

I agree that people should be able to build where ever they please, as long as they pay for the cost of rebuilding their homes (either through insurance or their own pocket) and not the general tax payer.

They are now being victimized by a government that arbitrarily changed the rules without any concern for the impact on the people in the area. With the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen the federal government effectively took their home but did not absolve them from having to continue paying for it.

As has been said before, a government big enough to give you everything you want can also take from you everything that you have and, with Obamacare, that will include taking your life.

Wait until your “seperate but equal” obamacare kicks in on 1/1/14 and you realize that you are one of 60 million working stiffs waiting for a public exchange while the ruling elite and unions go to the best medical facilities in the world. Of course these are the same facilities you used to be able to access but them obama and the government stepped in to “help you”.

Can’t wait to they get the GUM store built in DC and only the best of the best ruling elite will be able to go to it.

Oh, and if this doesn’t work we can just change the specifications and make you rebuild again.

What a great plan we’ve got here.

gekkobear on January 24, 2013 at 11:16 PM

Oh, is that an (R) I see next to your name here? No house for you!

In North Carolina (and this is happened country wide) flood rate insurance maps are being updated. As a result flood plains are being redelineated and while afew areas are being excluded (very few) floodplains and floodways (in essence, where the full current is felt during a flood, but the way that is determined is highly technical)are expanding. If they were in a flood way, they wouldn’t be able rebuild at all.

The Flood Insurance program is handled by FedGov because no private company would do it.

It is worse than a lot of people realize in situations like the victims here face. If the work you are having done to your house amounts to more than half the value of the home, then you must comply with current requirements. Under the older maps this was a problem for many people. With newer mapping, there are locations that find themselves in designated floodplains on smaller streams that had never had delineated floodplains earlier. This is seen in the Mountains of western North Carolina with the maps that went into force in 2010. Some of those maps are wrong, alas. I just a couple weeks ago sent some materials to NCFloodmap showing a problem at one location that is physically impossible based.

FEMA has been buying out properties in flood prone areas for many years. One small town was, in Iowa, I think, was completely relocated about 10 years ago. Other places, homes are being bought and people are relocating and old homes are being torn down. Some business properties are getting the same treatment.

I can’t say, without knowing a lot more, if the victims here should get a variance. FEMA does not like variances, however, but they can be granted. In most cases it is not FEMA that grants the variance,but the local floodplain administrators and the participating communities. FEMA usually delegates compliance audits to the State agency that has been placed in charge of these matters and they certify whether or not a participating community is in substantial compliance.

Being a participating community is important when it comes to flood insurance rates. If your property is not in a participating community, then flood insurance may not even be obtainable, and if it is, it will be highly expensive.

There is much more to this than meets the eye. But, I certainly agree with those that say that FedGov does not have the constitutional authority to set up and run a flood insurance program. But, as we well know, FedGov is utterly lawless and couldn’t care less about the law.

If I understand this situation correctly, these people are whining about the government’s rules that have to be followed to be able to get a bailout.
Here’s an idea that no one seems to have thought of:
Fix your own damn house at your own damn expense.
single stack on January 25, 2013 at 4:21 AM

Sounds more like they paid their required private insurance which they are now unable to use because FEMA regulations prohibit unless they make their home 20 feet taller. We’ve been living in the same house for 13 years down here in South Florida and, all of a sudden last year, the gov’t decided that our house was no longer in a flood zone so we no longer needed flood insurance. It’s arbitrary and ridiculous, similar to school zones.

“Hi … I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

It has been really hard hit by the downturn as well.

I don’t understand why it is not seizure, and they get a replacement house paid for by the agency stopping the rebuild.