Here we go again. Every year we hear about flooding, many times in the same places. Why people insist in building on flood plains in the first place, much less the intelligence of rebuilding time and time again is beyond me. Perhaps the flood insurance program helps this foolishness. Maybe this is one government program that both Tea Party followers and others can agree is a total waste of government resources.
In my opinion, the ONLY people that should be building and getting government insurance in flood plains are crop producers. No residental areas, no business districts, no manufacturing or industry, not even livestock producers…just crop producers. They can gain advantages by using organic farming practices and the soil renewal flooding allows. Farmers on the Nile knew this before the time of the pharoes…the yearly floods renewed the soils along the river and allowed them to grow crops consistently on the same land without artificially improving the soil.
The ONLY flood insurance available in the U.S. is ONLY issued by FEMA through participating insurance providers. There is NO privately issued flood insurance. Insurance companies decided long ago that providing it cost them more than they could ever take in. The government decided in 1968 to provide flood insurance.
There is no reason to pay out damages more than one time in a flood plain. First time, mistakes happen. Not checking topography of an area near a river might not come to mind to people new to an area, but after the first time…it’s on the property owner to either decide to move…or put aside funds for their own rebuilding.
There are clues…. Seeing the land rise on either side of a river….living behind a levee…living downstream from a dam…there are clues…and there ARE publicly available flood plain maps that can be gotten as well. The view may be fantastic, but is it really worth risking life and finances to live there?
The ONLY government payment that should happen after a flood…is paying people to move away and save the yearly drain on government resources…rescues, infrastructure repairs, insurance payouts, levee repair and upkeep…first responder usage and risks to them. It’s not worth doing this year after year. It’s good money after bad.
I feel bad that people lose things in floods, but after the first couple of floods, it’s time to cut losses and move.
Related Articles
- Things You Should Know About Flood Insurance (hkinsurance.wordpress.com)
- Cumbria floods cost insurers £200m (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
Sidelined Buddah 