By: blutodog

blutodog — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:22:21 +0000

The media is not reporting the evolving 2nd wave of disaster happening along the northeast coast post-Sandy. Everyone thinks the 50 bil. relief bill for the storm is a great thing, but it has a slimy corrupt dark side as is usual with anything the Feds seem to get involved in with this much $$. At the same moment that millions along the coast in NJ, NY and Conn. are waiting anxiously to be compensated by FEMA for damages, FEMA has dropped an enormous shit bomb on all the coastal communities in the form of new Flood maps. These maps determine Nat’l Flood Ins. rates going forward and in those maps was buried what amounts to a forced evacuation of most of the coast. Forced for the poor and middle class that is. This is because the new maps and regulations that come with them are requiring that possibly millions of homeowners in the new designated Velocity flood zones must raise their homes and businesses or not be qualified for flood Ins. Since the majority of these folks have a mortgage the banks have also made it a requirement that you have a flood policy or be foreclosed on. Once adopted these regulations not ONLY require you lift your home up to the new flood elevations, but that you place it on pilings, not just a block or concrete footing! The cost for this is astronomical and not even practical in the case of many homes. For the wealthy and cash flush this isn’t a problem because these folks can pay off any mortgage or don’t have one in the 1st place so they can self insure, no problem for them, right? However the great majority of home and business owners can’t afford to do it and they must either take the Gov’t offered grant of $30,000 to accomplish this or possibly lose their homes. Here’s the rub, first off were talking about literally the herculean task of lifting and fixing possibly entire barrier Island communities or entire islands like Long Beach Island, NJ that is 18 miles long and every sq. inch is in the new flood zones! There simply are not enough contractors or equipment to do this in any kind of timely manner and secondly it costs twice as much to lift, and renovate , reconnect all the services a house requires and move everything out of the house to do it. Then, the case of the pilings. Nobody has any idea what that will cost and once again in many case it’s almost an impossibility because of the way these houses are situated on narrow lots. The short term effect is enormous anger that is building along the coast as property owners are starting to realize that instead of being rescued by the Feds and the State they are now being thrown under the wheels of the greed machine and it’s Corporatist pals in Gov’t. That this is evolving to be another real estate disaster of possibly monumental proportions and it’s already taking place as I write. %00 pople turned out at a local school near where I live last evening to attend a FEMA sponsored meeting, to explain the new regs and maps and it almost turned into a full blown riot and local police had to go up on the stage and warn people to calm down or else. This fiasco is going almost un reported in the MSM and even in the alternative online media. Another more immediate effect is nobody knows what anything is worth down here now and nobody can sell and and buyers are staying away until the massive uncertainty in the markets this has caused shakes out one way or another.

Comments on: Obama set to sign Superstorm Sandy aid bill

By: blutodog