I bet the venn diagram of floridians who want bailout money but object to student debt relief is quite close to a circle.
Florida voted against federal aid for the California bushfires.
Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
151–160 of 237 posts
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, 1000x this. It is frustrating to be sending piles of money to these states every year, which they then waste on political stunts like flying legal immigrants to other states, instead of taking care of their citizens, or maybe investing in climate hardening. And then they're completely unprepared for cold weather, hot weather, wet weather, dry weather, ... and say things like "Nobody knew ___ could be so complica…
I doubt FEMA money is actually used for the immigrant stunt and Florida is not unprepared for hurricanes. Florida actually has pretty good stormwater management infrastructure, mostly because it has to. Homes in South Florida are also required to be built out of concrete block and have hurricane windows. Point being: Florida is decently prepared for storms. Could it be better? Of course. But I would not say Florida i…
> I doubt FEMA money is actually used for the immigrant stunt
An assertion is that money is fungible, so $12mln spent on a stunt in Texas could have been spent on breakwaters, infill, or to move less stable homes from the immediate coast. (Or to have more building inspection before Surfside's incident)
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same for San Francisco. Two earthquakes and it must be returned back to the swamp. New York got hit bad with Sandy. Thirty years or so and we might level it too. It turns out that with climate change, nothing is going to be safe. And with the pacific shelf, we will always have that as an issue too.
That goes for severe blizzards for NYC as well, because I say so. Public funds must no longer be allocated to clearing snow from roads every year just because selfish people decide to live in NYC.
Are those federal funds being used for snow clearage?
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Legal immigrants? The feds flew or bused illegal border crossers who were processed and released to many states, including Florida. Yes it was a political stunt to move them again, but how is it worse than what the feds are doing?
They are asylum seekers, what is illegal about that?
God the fact this comment keeps going gray really bothers me. You're 100% correct and these people are acting lawfully.
I get that HN often swings conservative, but I gotta believe if we were in these folk's shoes some of us would be seeking a better life for ourselves through asylum in America.
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#155I can only assume it will go higher. We need to push FEMA to have a 2 and done rule. After that the property must be returned back to dunes/parks/public spaces.
Whenever I see pictures of the aftermath of such events it seems that the damage is mostly to private houses and boats. Commercial properties, shopping malls, and apartment blocks seem much less affected. If this impression truly reflects what happens then surely what is needed is simply stricter and more appropriate building regulations.
So, does my impression accord at all with reality? Are apartment blocks, corporate and government buildings really more robust and better sited or is this just a misleading impression caused by the images that are easily available?
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hurricanes are a fact of life in the gulf and southeastern atlantic coasts. There is no area that has not have been hit twice already in the past century. So all this coastline should be dunes and park spaces?
To be honest, that sounds amazing . Having those coasts be parks with hundreds of miles of low-impact infrastructure like hiking/biking/walking paths, maybe simple low-key restaurants that aren't a big deal to rebuild every decade, etc. Put all the heavier infrastructure like housing developments a few miles inland. Then everyone can enjoy these idyllic beach lands a little farther from all the buzz of cities. Everyo…
Plum Island, MA is kinda like that. Nearby inland Newburyport is a beautiful town with a riverfront, but the beach is all wild.
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
"So all this coastline should be dunes and park spaces?" Yes. That makes sense to me. What's the downside?
If you want to live in a deindustrialized society, there is no downside. If you like things like international shipping, gasoline, diesel, and having food on your table, there are a few downsides.
We can still build hardened ports and port cities. If you want a coastal vacation house, that’s going to be an (even more) expensive luxury.
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not a chance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Progr... >As of August 2017, the program insured about 5 million homes (down from about 5.5 million homes in April 2010), the majority of which are in Texas and Florida.[3][4] The cost of the insurance program was fully covered by its premiums until the end of 2004, but it has had to steadily borrow funds since, primarily due to Hurricane Katrina an…
Is the conclusion that housing should not be built where Sandy’s damages occurred? That seems... unreasonable .
Sandy was an anomalous storm but could happen again. By the time storms reach the Northeast they’re weak, usually not even hurricanes at landfall. The Jersey Shore was very unprepared but new development is far more robust. Lots more dunes being built and protected too.
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, 1000x this. It is frustrating to be sending piles of money to these states every year, which they then waste on political stunts like flying legal immigrants to other states, instead of taking care of their citizens, or maybe investing in climate hardening. And then they're completely unprepared for cold weather, hot weather, wet weather, dry weather, ... and say things like "Nobody knew ___ could be so complica…
Legal immigrants? The feds flew or bused illegal border crossers who were processed and released to many states, including Florida. Yes it was a political stunt to move them again, but how is it worse than what the feds are doing?
Sad how we ended up in a world where capital is the only thing that gets the right to travel the globe freely.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23030681-000-the-trut...
“The passport as an instrument of state regulation was born of the French revolution of 1789. At first, ordinary people were issued passes to control internal movement, especially to Paris. But after the king tried to escape, and foreign aristocrats attacked the revolution, the authorities started requiring such papers for exit and entry to the country. The revolution created one of the world’s first “nation-states”, defined by the “national” identity of its people rather than its monarchs’ claims.”
“But as the industrial revolution snowballed in the 19th century, there was pressure to allow free movement of all the factors of production – money, trade *and labour*. Passport requirements were widely relaxed across Europe — in 1872, the British foreign secretary, Earl Granville, even wrote: “all foreigners have the unrestricted right of entrance into and residence in this country”. The situation was similar in North America.”
https://fee.org/articles/passports-were-a-temporary-war-meas...
“In 1947, the first problem considered at an expert meeting preparing for the UN World Conference on Passports and Frontier Formalities was “the possibility of a return to the regime which existed before 1914 involving as a general rule the abolition of any requirement that travelers should carry passports.””
Re: Hurricane Ian damages in Southeast estimated at $100B to $120B
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just hurricanes--look up the looming aquifer depletion for South Florida and its effect on life for folks in Miami and the Keys.
Sounds like the aquifer issue in the gear plains. At least FL has desalination as an option.
Florida gets tons of rain. This should be solvable without desal