Leo T. reviewed The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coasts on + 1775 more book reviews
The book seems excellent but nothing will be done. That is the LBJ administration did not require that reserves be built up from the fees paid by property owners, the rates paid for the insurance are not enough to please an actuary, and people rebuild on exposed shores. I have not seen the book but the author flogged it in a long interview on WHYY last night (17 October 2019, Ms. Gross' program).
8/15/2020 I saw a review and wished for this book for the shelf at the old soldiers and sailors' home. In due course, it was supplied by Ms. Folk of Glenview, Illinois, and we thank her. With the Covid-19 problems I have been able to dispatch few books and magazines and so had it on hand when I took refuge in a cooling center last Sunday. As promised, Mr. Gaul (Pulitzer Prize winner) delivers an easily readable book about national flood insurance.
"It is always possible to design a program that fails. Sometimes, it happens by accident or bad luck. Other times, it is the result of poor planning and bad choices. In the case of federal flood insurance, it took all three of these elements--poor planning, reckless choices, and bad luck."
I knew that Congress used to hate making supplemental appropriations for disaster aid (when there were members who valued a balanced budget) but Congress is to blame for bowing to the demands of towns who value visitor spending and real estate interests. They clamor to rebuild on shorelines that should have no more than accomodations for travel trailers and campers and that can be rebuilt for a few million dollars if swept away. Instead, the public pays for rebuilding vacation resort housing.
"The economic benefits associated with beach-building are also limited. Coastal states and lobbying groups pay for studies that invariably show wide impacts on jobs and income. However, as with many such studies, the data appear to be cherry-picked and liberally overstate the the role of the coastal economy. Nationally, only 4 percent of all jobs are 'dependent on coastal and ocean resources,' according to NOAA. In New Jersey, less than 3 percent of the jobs are at the immediate coast."
Originally, the idea was to help out losses suffered by the primary residential houses. There is a long history of limiting development on the coastline. Mr. Gaul traces the inexpensive Cape Cod summer houses sold for a very few thousand dollars on the New Jersey coast in the 1920s-1940s to the expensive dwellings of the late 20th C. Specific details of the power of major storms are offered from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (with photos) and the author interviews real estate experts, mayors, and scientists. The fact is that the '100 year storm' is not a term used by experts and Houston (no zoning) has seen several such in recent years. The future promises global warming and higher sea levels and I feel that building dikes and replacing sand is like King Canute attempting to sweep back the sea. Such efforts should be paid for towns and property owners, not state or federal governments.
The comments on Galveston were of special interest to me as I met my great-grandmother's sister-in-law when I was five years old--she and her husband had been there in 1900.
Before FDR, local government and charitable persons responded to disasters, including the great flood of 1927 of the Mississippi River. The Coolidge Administration did allow greater involvement by the Army Corps of Engineers. Attempts to obtain federal dollars faltered until it was passed alongside small business disaster relief after the riots during LBJ's administration. The latter loan program ended up costing little but the National Flood Insurance Program has grown like Topsy. The rates are way too low (the actuaries of private insurance firms warn them off), there are no reserves, high commissions are paid, lost buildings are rebuilt and lost again, and it is a boondoggle.
Sources, Index.
8/15/2020 I saw a review and wished for this book for the shelf at the old soldiers and sailors' home. In due course, it was supplied by Ms. Folk of Glenview, Illinois, and we thank her. With the Covid-19 problems I have been able to dispatch few books and magazines and so had it on hand when I took refuge in a cooling center last Sunday. As promised, Mr. Gaul (Pulitzer Prize winner) delivers an easily readable book about national flood insurance.
"It is always possible to design a program that fails. Sometimes, it happens by accident or bad luck. Other times, it is the result of poor planning and bad choices. In the case of federal flood insurance, it took all three of these elements--poor planning, reckless choices, and bad luck."
I knew that Congress used to hate making supplemental appropriations for disaster aid (when there were members who valued a balanced budget) but Congress is to blame for bowing to the demands of towns who value visitor spending and real estate interests. They clamor to rebuild on shorelines that should have no more than accomodations for travel trailers and campers and that can be rebuilt for a few million dollars if swept away. Instead, the public pays for rebuilding vacation resort housing.
"The economic benefits associated with beach-building are also limited. Coastal states and lobbying groups pay for studies that invariably show wide impacts on jobs and income. However, as with many such studies, the data appear to be cherry-picked and liberally overstate the the role of the coastal economy. Nationally, only 4 percent of all jobs are 'dependent on coastal and ocean resources,' according to NOAA. In New Jersey, less than 3 percent of the jobs are at the immediate coast."
Originally, the idea was to help out losses suffered by the primary residential houses. There is a long history of limiting development on the coastline. Mr. Gaul traces the inexpensive Cape Cod summer houses sold for a very few thousand dollars on the New Jersey coast in the 1920s-1940s to the expensive dwellings of the late 20th C. Specific details of the power of major storms are offered from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (with photos) and the author interviews real estate experts, mayors, and scientists. The fact is that the '100 year storm' is not a term used by experts and Houston (no zoning) has seen several such in recent years. The future promises global warming and higher sea levels and I feel that building dikes and replacing sand is like King Canute attempting to sweep back the sea. Such efforts should be paid for towns and property owners, not state or federal governments.
The comments on Galveston were of special interest to me as I met my great-grandmother's sister-in-law when I was five years old--she and her husband had been there in 1900.
Before FDR, local government and charitable persons responded to disasters, including the great flood of 1927 of the Mississippi River. The Coolidge Administration did allow greater involvement by the Army Corps of Engineers. Attempts to obtain federal dollars faltered until it was passed alongside small business disaster relief after the riots during LBJ's administration. The latter loan program ended up costing little but the National Flood Insurance Program has grown like Topsy. The rates are way too low (the actuaries of private insurance firms warn them off), there are no reserves, high commissions are paid, lost buildings are rebuilt and lost again, and it is a boondoggle.
Sources, Index.
