I live in the Caribbean, and we get a lot of hurricanes. A few every year.
We build for extreme weather. Our building codes (and common sense) protect us. My house has 10" of concrete on all our exterior walls and 1" concrete shingles on the roof, with no electrical system below waist height. We have 1/4" galvanized sheets of metal in the shed that we can bolt over all our windows when a cat-4 blows through. Don't get me wrong - a cat 2+ is still a giant pain in the ass to live through, but it's not a long-term problem.
Also, most people don't bother with home insurance (unless they have a mortgage) covering storm damage. You build your house in anticipation of repairing it and thus build better.
A lot of our current situation is only possible because we had an island-wide reset in 2004 (https://youtu.be/NzzeDGICjbA), that may be what it takes for Florida.
irrational
I'm fine with them living there as long as the rest of us don't have to pay anything to bail them out when the inevitable hurricane or tornado comes through. These aren't like earthquakes and volcanoes that are relatively rare. They literally have a hurricane season. Imagine if we had a volcano season.
betaby
It amazing that governments gives new building permits in such areas.
Applies both is USA and Canada. Some areas near Montreal are know to be in the flood zone for centuries, yet I see new constructions popping here and there. Not a lot, but not zero.
And then we, as all taxpayers, foot the bill.
michaelteter
And still building houses out of toothpicks.
Molitor5901
Anecdotal personal aside: My wife and I considered moving to Tampa some years ago but what scared us away were sinkholes. Hurricanes, etc. were a concern, but when combined with the threat of sinkholes and other natural disasters, it made the home owners insurance more than what we wanted to pay, and so the decision not to move to Tampa became easier.
rr808
Its crazy to see the NY times talking about how people are thinking of leaving Florida. In reality people still are leaving NY state - we're down a million people since Covid started, Florida is up 1 million in the same time.
bbqfog
No word on home insurance rates? It's already completely insane in the SE (and other regions of the country) and can only get worse. I don't see how it's possibly sustainable or what will be done. With the current state of insurance, it's "normal" for your mortgage payment to jump every year or two to compensate for insurance increases in your escrow account.
We build for extreme weather. Our building codes (and common sense) protect us. My house has 10" of concrete on all our exterior walls and 1" concrete shingles on the roof, with no electrical system below waist height. We have 1/4" galvanized sheets of metal in the shed that we can bolt over all our windows when a cat-4 blows through. Don't get me wrong - a cat 2+ is still a giant pain in the ass to live through, but it's not a long-term problem.
Also, most people don't bother with home insurance (unless they have a mortgage) covering storm damage. You build your house in anticipation of repairing it and thus build better.
A lot of our current situation is only possible because we had an island-wide reset in 2004 (https://youtu.be/NzzeDGICjbA), that may be what it takes for Florida.