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| "I'm from the guvmint, and I'm here to help." |
bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Septuagesima Sunday, 2013. Matthew 20:1-16. First...":
More on our national insanity--building houses in vulnerable areas, and then FEMA pays to repair them whenrver a hurricane or super-storm strikes. Has there ever been one landfall of a hurricane or superstorm in the last half century that the US didn't have to fork out tens of billions dollars because no one lived in ground zero? Nope.:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/worst-flooded-areas-left-sandy-18272737
The difficulty in getting aid for storm victims through Congress — most of a $60 billion package could get final approval next week — highlights the hard choices that may have to be made soon across the country, where the federal, state and local governments all say they don't have unlimited resources to keep writing checks when storms strike....
The problem has worsened in recent decades with an explosion of development near the nation's shorelines. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that in 2003, approximately 153 million people — 53 percent of the nation's population — lived in coastal counties, an increase of 33 million people since 1980. The agency forecasts 12 million more to join them by 2015.
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State and city officials don't like to return neighborhoods to nature since they lose their tax base:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/01/7051761/white-flag-over-fox-beach-coastal-community-considers-permanent-ret'
The state, in turn, will have to petition FEMA. If FEMA obliges, its grants will cover only 75 percent of the acquisition costs, the rest theoretically covered by the city and state, if they go along with it. Which is a substantial "if," given that they'd essentially be paying for a reduction of their tax-paying base, and setting precedent to do so on a broader basis.
"Don’t look at getting anything from the city or the state," said Molinaro.
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GJ - China builds ghost cities where no one lives.
