Hurricane Relief
motorhead
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
Should I take into consideration the median home price on Sanibel Island in August 2022 was $1.3 million? These are not residents of the Lower 9th Ward.
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Even the experts say this
“Jesse M. Keenan, a real estate professor at Tulane University’s School of Architecture. “We can’t build back everything to what it was — we can’t afford that.”
Also, "millionaire" isn't nearly as rich as when that term was coined. Hell, I'm technically a millionaire due to home equity and I don't live some luxury lifestyle nor do I look nor feel rich even if I can afford some nice things here and there. The term "millionaire" was coined in the 18th century when a "million" was more equivalent to $30 million today.
That area also serves as pretty good evidence that we can rebuild in a way that stands up to the weather. I agree in some areas it may not make sense, but there's plenty of homes that were rebuilt with modern codes that are basically fine. We just can't be idiots about it and have to rebuild in a way that acknowledges the power of the storms and the gulf.
There were a lot of lower priced areas more inland that suffered serious damage as well. Many of those people either had minimal insurance coverage or in some cases no insurance. That is especially true of people that are renting a home and living paycheck to paycheck and often don't have renter's insurance.
That is why it is important to make sure that you donate to reputable charities that have a long history of handling their finances appropriately. Many of the charities that pop up after something like this just want to raise and distribute as much money as fast as possible without making sure it goes to those that truly need it the most.
The decision to donate or not is something each person has to make for themselves. I just hope that those who do chose to donate make sure they are giving it to the right organizations so it actually helps those in need.
@Muddy those "would you like to round up for [local for-the-kiddies]" are bullshit. I asked a few of them how much money actually makes it to the stated beneficiaries: none. Not one fucking cent.
It’s all of the above. For sure, there are wealthy, heavily insured folks who will no doubt profit from their losses. There will also be a lot of insurance fraud, and no shortage of scammers who will take full advantage of this disaster.
However, there are also many, many more medium to lower income folks and fixed income retirees who have taken a huge loss, and have no means to recover. These people have nowhere to live, and cannot afford to rebuild their lives. You can say it’s their own fault for living in a trailer in a hurricane zone, or for not evacuating prior to the storm, or whatever. But these are (mostly) good people who are in a desperate situation now - regardless of who’s to blame, and are in desperate need of help.
I have been sending supply runs every other day to my west coast teams, to keep them going in the short term until things can get stabilized. So if you feel compelled to donate to relief causes, please do so. There is no shortage of need. If you don’t feel compelled to donate, that’s ok too. There is a lot of support coming in from all over. It will be a tough situation for awhile, but we will get through this.
It’s going to be years before some of these properties are repaired or replaced.
My advice is anyone that needs to file a claim do so immediately before some of these insurance companies have the opportunity to file for bankruptcy and be sure to get a competent insurance attorney or adjuster.
Florida also has the pool, but the coverages there are the most expensive and the most limited.
The big debate now will be whether a house was damaged by wind or water first.
People are correct about the "wind" coverage in any coastal area's that get hit by hurricanes or tropical storms. It is sometimes a separate coverage or have $10K or more deductibles and premium. Plus like mentioned the premium on "roofs" or for wind is $10K a year or more. 2-3 years of not paying premium you have a new roof... well before this inflation and building supply crisis.
Sanibel and Fort Myers were wiped off the map, and I have very little sympathy for the rich man who built his house on the shifting sands. However, there were a lot of lower income communities which were devastated as well. The working, middle, and upper class incomes, particularly those with mortgages, will all have homeowners and storm insurance. Many of the lower income residents, especially multiple generations living in a single home as opposed to renters, will not have insurance. I would advocate entirely to donating to Hurricane Relief efforts. While it may make more sense to donate to private or NGO charities, I actually think relief efforts coordinated by FEMA may be valuable since it would include hiring individuals to do the hard, manual labor for the clean-up. There are enough watchdogs between DeSantis, the FL legislature, and other conservative whistleblowers that Kommiela's idiotic equity-based relief paradigm will not be implemented.
Storms are becoming more destructive, but only because we are putting more and more expensive targets in their path. These are manmade disasters. If you want oceanfront property, sunset-view condos, beachfront patios, then you need to accept that it will be leveled by a hurricane at some point. It is inevitable. Katrina? Only so destructive because of the MRGO, New Orleans failure to maintain the canals, and building billions of dollars of below sea level. Ian? Only because people drained swampland and built multi-million dollar properties in place of mangroves on barrier islands. If people (mankind) made smarter environmental decisions, the destructive impact of these storm would be lessened.
end of sermon.
So yes the storms are getting larger, Don Lemon has nothing to do with this, it's simply a fact.
25, I don't want to get into a climate change pissing match with you, but I lived on the Texas coast in the late 80s and I remember Gilbert being a monster storm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_…
It's not the climate is getting any more stable. Accept the risk or leave.