I think it is more like, only the government provides subsidized flood insurance, and there's no reason why a private insurance company would want to compete with that. If the taxpayers weren't subsidizing flood insurance, I'm sure there would be private insurers that would be in the market (at a higher price). barfo
it's about $600 for a $200k (nice, 2200 sq ft) house Still really cheap for the protection. If I remember right, they give the flood zones a letter. That price is for the zone that floods the least.
so .... Thanks for the well wishes for the area. It sucks that people lost their stuff, and memories, .... but most things you can get back. The shelters here a swapped with victims, but are also swapped with volunteers. They are actually turning some away. Donations are crazy too. Houston has spots that flood all the time. Roads, intersections, a few housing areas. The drainage system can handle rainfalls of 1"-2" per hour for a short while with just roads flooded. They designed the roads as part of the drainage. they are lower than the houses. Harvey was different. It rained all day Friday, normal rain, hard in spots, mostly not. So ground is getting saturated and bayous are filling up. Saturday night was different. Imagine being in the a heavy thunderstorm for 6-7 hours (some places longer). 20+" of rain. The drainage just could not keep up. Weather people are calling this a 500 yr flood, some say a 1000 yr flood. Almost every watershed reached record levels. Any area will flood if it rains hard enough, long enough. That is what happen. Harvey just sat for 3 or 4 days. Local rain gauges (home type, so take with a grain of salt) show 60+" of rain in my home town for the whole event. Soon as the rain stopped, the water went down quickly. Except the reservoirs and rivers. For the houses surrounding the reservoirs that are flooding. Just some insight (maybe) People not getting flood insurance around here are stupid. It is cheap. The reservoirs are designed to hold water when it rains. They are a park space when dry, most days of the year. Water covers the roads about once a yr. Not subdivision roads, but the roads in the reservoirs. Houses have been creeping closer and closer to the reservoirs because Houston is so spread out. The reservoirs are "closer" to the city so land values went up. Those areas the houses are on has not flooded ... since I don't know when (been here 40 yrs). These areas will hold water for weeks, maybe month or 2 cause water is still coming downstream. It actually went around one of the dike walls because it is holding so much. I actually think Beaumont got it worst, but it is not as big as Houston so will not get the publicity Edit: not saturated, to getting saturated
They are. FEMA buys out houses that flood often and does not let people build back on them. Maybe after the drainage is change. This SHOULD be just older homes. I would HOPE they wizened up and don't allow new construction. It is the government though.
Not sure how it works, but FEMA does handle the flood insurance. We would make the check for the payment out to FEMA.
If it comes down to losing everything and not getting money or losing everything and getting money I'm "accidently" dropping my tiki torch in the pile of white sheets I "accidently" spilled gasoline on. And then trying to put out the fire by shooting my gun at it.
Homes lost from this storm are nearing 125,000. There will be more homes lost because the water has to go somewhere. Sorry. Back to your Trump talk that has absolutely NOTHING to do with this storm
I was born in Texas in a small town north east of Beaumont called Silsbee in a hospital that no longer exists (it was closed and torn down years ago) and now the town may be gone too.
Fake news. We've been told all our lives that EVERYTHING is big in Texas........ (Sorry CC, it's the snarky BG genes that made me say that.....he got them from his mother.
