Subject: Re: Hurricane Milton, Paradise Lost
As an aside, the questions I have is why do we allow people to build houses in flood zones to begin with? And why do my tax dollars go to insure homes of people who decide to build homes in flood zones over and over and over?

And that is the long term question, perhaps not so much for North Carolina as it is for the Gulf and lower Atlantic coast.


In Galveston, right now, Galveston authorities have approved the construction of high rise condos on a stretch of beach that was washed away by a hurricane that hit there less than two decades ago- lured into approval by the millions in property taxes that this property would generate. And of course, there are suckers born every minute who will buy these condos. At some point, they will lose those condos. Those with means will simply write off the loss. Those who scrimped to buy those condos will be left with nothing, because what insurance company in its right mind will insure a property that will most likely be gone in a few decades (or sooner)?

Rinse and repeat.

The lure of taxes generated lures local governments.

The fear of being perceived as authoritarian prohibits the feds from imposing bans on construction.

It has been the case that insurance companies have backstopped a great deal of this foolishness, but increasingly they are backing out of that suckers’ game.

But meanwhile, we’re on the hook for the victims, whether they be victims of charlatans or victims of their own desire to own a “little piece of paradise”, or victims of storms that are increasingly more dangerous…. Or victims of all three.

At least for the gulf coast where sea levels are rising more rapidly than in other places, this problem should resolve itself before the end of the century.

Reality has a way forcing solutions to seemingly intractable problems.