I’m about to do something extremely gauche and, well, Republican, because I am going to bitch about how shitty the weather has been this past week while 40 million people are at risk of drowning because of Hurricane Helene, but there you have it. The weather here has sucked- just cloudy and no sun and not even the decency to do a proper rain. And I am such a moody prick that I am really influenced by the weather. If it is not sunny I am pissy and moody and have less energy. It doesn’t need to be warm. I just need sun.
At any rate, because it is crappy, I am making a big pot of corned beef and cabbage soup for dinner. I’m still trying to watch my girlish figure, so I only used two potatoes but a whole bags of carrots, two onions, two heads of cabbage, and a thing of corned beef. I’ll never get over the cost of corned beef these days. What used to cost me 3-4 bucks is now 17-18 dollars. It will always be poor people food to me.
I’ve seen several pieces along the line of “Biden brought these red states lots of jobs and these people are still voting Republican,” and this is as good a representative of the genre as is out there. Maddening.
It’s really depressing that in the year 2024 we’re still pushing the economic anxiety angle. No, not everyone is doing well out there and there is tons that needs to be done, but the simple fact of the matter is that these people don’t care about it. All they want to do is to say the n word and be told by people that it is ok to feel that way. I’m just over it.
The flooding all over and landslides and the rest of the horror going on in Georgia and the Carolinas and everyhere else is horrifying, and it’s so bad I am wondering how they are all going to blame Biden and Harris. It’s just awful, of course, but this is the new normal and people need to get used to it. No more building in flood zones. No more buildup on the coasts. Harden everything for scenarios which once were unthinkable.
Nothing can be the way it was before, down to road and bridge construction and the materials we use in our houses. Cement or similar materials on the ground floors, no more drywall, etc. Thinking of new ways to deliver power whether with buried lines and more redundancy in the grid, relocating hospitals, new ways to store fuel and deal with human and animal waste so it quits getting washed all over the place in floods. And on and on and on. The mess we are in is real, it isn’t a hypothetical, it is here, and it is going to get worse.
These changes, of course, will never come from government mandates, but by the accountants.
Extreme weather is the new normal.
I’m about talked out. Time to head back to some Jack Irish.
Tom Levenson
What you said about change except not accountants but insurance peeps.
Actuaries rule the world.
Doc H
On the climate crisis’ “right now” impacts, a friend (who just wrote an excellent book on infrastructure btw) recently recommended the 99% Invisible Not Built For This podcast miniseries. I haven’t started listening yet, but it’s in the queue.
pat
I find myself just …. depressed? tired? Just the thought that for the next, how many days? we have to hear about the psychopath who might become the next president. And worry about it.
I’ll be doing some canvassing tomorrow. Hope it helps.
Just watched Harris’s speech in Arizona and my god compare a thinking, intelligent, caring person ready “on day one!” to be president with the deranged ….. thing… that she is running against.
Thank god I live in Paradise (western WI) where all the bad storms just miss us. Watch the ABC news every night and they start off with the weather and one has to wonder, why on earth would anyone choose to live there?
Well, mr. pat has Bruckner no. 8 streaming now so I will relax and enjoy the music….
Jay
@Tom Levenson:
Doubt it. Not as long as the Feds/States bail out the powerful idiots.
When it comes to property, not people, Governments are the insurer of last recourse.
In “socialist” BC, if you live on a property zoned TFL, (rural, have trees), you can’t get fire insurance, but as long as your place burns down from a forest fire and not a grease fire, arson or chimney fire, the Province will eventually compensate you.
Elizabelle
Saw some footage and photos of flood damage in Western NC. Rutherford County. Looks like town of Chimney Rock, which was pretty much just a main drag along the highway, is about gone.
That is such a beautiful area. I wonder how long until the landscape comes back. Harder, perhaps, for the people.
It’s interesting that climate change is hitting residents so far inland. Wake up call.
dmsilev
Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox for their record-setting accomplishment!
Nukular Biskits
Survivor of Katrina (2005), Frederick (1979, living in Meridian, MS) and Camille (1969, although I was a wee lad of 5 years old and we lived in Mobile at the time) and several smaller storms.
With Katrina, were it not for the federal gov’t handing over $5 billion to MS’s “conservative” government, we’d still be digging out.
Although it sucks for the folks of FL and I seriously do not wish this on good folks like BettyC, Hurricane Helene is a Karmic bitchslap given DeSantis’s need to own the libs by denying climate change exists.
Harrison Wesley
What sort of Marxist meteorology is this? Are you implying that here in the Sunshine State we suffer under some sort of ‘woke’ weather? Be aware that we live under the benign governance of Prince Puddinghands of the White Boots, who has enlightened us with the knowledge that “climate change” is a fraud. Indeed, it is less than a fraud, it is a fantasy, a mere flatulato in the Great Wind of the Universe.
Elizabelle
Having watched a fourth house wash away on Rodanthe, NC oceanfront: it’s conventional wisdom that some of the owners do not take the doomed houses down pre-emptively because “insurance will not pay for it.” Although, kinda wonder what kind of insurance they even have at this point. Houses are condemned because of insufficient septic system, etc., and are without power.
It seems it would be easier to take a house down while it is standing in one place, rather than pick it up once it’s spread over miles of beachfront.
I guess no one wants to pay? Getting ridiculous.
dmsilev
So, the question must be asked: why didn’t Donald Trump deploy his Sharpie of Hurricane Redirection and send the storm out to sea or something like that?
MagdaInBlack
@dmsilev: If he was still president it would never have happened.
lamh47
@Nukular Biskits: Fellow Katrina survivor here.
Hurricanes were/are a way of life even before Katrina, but my Katrina experience def shaped me even more.
Now living in Oakland, weather is obviously not the same as my NOLA days, but also still paying attention to weather for my family in NOLA.
lamh47
ooh speaking of Chump and that rally today. Just saw this from one of the press groups…
WHOA!
dmsilev
@MagdaInBlack: So, you’re saying it’s Joe Biden’s fault?
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
That’s cold.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: I lived on the South Side when they broke their umpteen decade long World Series drought. Been a long sad fall since then.
lamh47
SMH…here goes CBS with some bullshit before the damn debate even comes…
CBS News says it will be up to Vance and Walz to fact-check each other in veep debate via @YahooNews
BR
I shared some other videos from this guy who seems to have legit changed his mind from Trump to Harris:
https://www.tiktok.com/@thatguyyu/video/7417209587079597343
Nukular Biskits
@lamh47:
Not to trivialize the death and damage to NOLA, it was a joke here in the Magnolia that the destruction from Katrina extended from LA to AL to the western tip of FL … and, oh, yeah, that landmass between LA and AL.
The entire lower half of this benighted state was without power. Living just north of I-10 Exit 50 at the time, I considered us to be very lucky to have relatively minor damage: missing 1/3 my shingles, my barn flattened, trees in front yard took out feeder power line to house, ripping electrical box off the side.
I ran a generator for 2 weeks doing repairs before we finally got power.
And we were lucky.
MagdaInBlack
@dmsilev: Yes. Isn’t everything?
( please tell me you know I’m being….is ironic the word? )
wjca
But it’s the accountants working for the insurance peeps.
NotMax
Excerpt from John Ford’s 1937 The Hurricane.
Prescott Cactus
Arizona is calling.
SW
Well the rising cost of homeowners insurance is clearly a matter of inflation. And since Joe Biden’s economic policies caused the inflation who are we supposed to blame?
Tell me why Biden’s policies didn’t cause inflation. If you can do that in a clear and concise manner perhaps that should be the gist of some ads and work it’s way into the stump speeches.
MagdaInBlack
Very windy here in nw Chicago-land. I was sitting on the balcony watching bands of clouds roll in from the south east, thinking how fascinating it is to me that those are hurricane bands, here, in northern Illinois.
TBone
10:15 pm on TCM:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Not_Your_Negro
Melancholy Jaques
@lamh47:
So we’re going to have a football game without any referees, but we will still expect it to be like a football game.
Have these people no integrity at all?
lamh47
@Nukular Biskits: True, my family did evacuate from NOLA, and never returned to the city for at least a year and for me, never moved back for 7 years.
It weirdly seems like NOLA is back to what it was, but it’s truly not, if anything it’s still only a surface difference.
At this almost 20 year mark, we no longer think of the victimhood of it all, but still can’t think back without realizing just how much that 1 cat 2 hurricane did so much damage and after effects.
Prescott Cactus
@dmsilev:
I was at yesterday’s game and they didn’t have the decency to break the record at home. So tonight they break the record and give Detroit a ticket to the playoffs.
Elizabelle
Feeling a little bit numb at all the destruction. Someone mentioned conditions are lining up for another strong storm around October 8?
Wondering what this could do to local and national elections. Quite the potential disruption. Really wondering how this might affect North Carolina, which is a winnable state this year. (At least for Governor!)
I remember Lumberton, NC got hit hard by flooding in mid-October, damage from Hurricane Matthew (which did its worst in Haiti).
dmsilev
@MagdaInBlack: Yes, definitely aware. No worries.
lamh47
@Melancholy Jaques: SMH…of course it had to be some bullshit, especially since there will likely be no other POTUS debates.
So the last bit of fuckery they have is the VP debate. And if you believe that the real playbook is to have Vance take Chump’s place if he does get elected, then the VP debate is the change for Vance to try to prove…”something”
Percysowner
Re: Corned Beef. Every year in March Aldi has pretty cheap corned beef, like $2-$3 per pound. They limit 2 per person, although I suspect you could do a couple of trips. If you have a freezer you can have reasonably priced corned beef a couple of times.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Program
Even if the beach front property has been un-livable for years, the Feds cover it.
YMMV if it’s island property in the Delta not owned by a rich white person. Yes, even Fed Insurance is racist.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Amazing special effects. Won the Oscar for Best Sound.
Suzanne
@Doc H: LMAO. I listened to every episode of “Not Built for This”. The last episode was about…. Phoenix. Hilarious.
CONCRETE.
3Sice
Mountain regions are tough because the only flat places to build are watersheds.
A flooding event on Wednesday in Eastern TN and Western NC that saturated the soil and filled the waterways, followed by the NE quad (where the wind power resides) of Helene hitting the mountains and dropping a massive water load. There was 2 ft of rain along the eastern Appalachian slopes in NC.
As a disaster movie plot, it’s not plausible.
ron
Okinawa and other places that regularly get hit with typhoons have figured things out. Poles are made of reinforced concrete, homes are concrete as are roofs with concrete shingles, windows all have the wire mesh in them and there are dozens of other strategies they employ. A typhoon will cause flooding, power outages, and torn up trees, but everything is back to normal a day or two later.
Suzanne
A note about this: hospitals need to be where people live. As long as people keep moving to unsustainable places — and they are, including the blogfather — that’s where they will be built.
dmsilev
@lamh47: I assume that the Harris/Walz team is doing debate prep with the expectation of a firehose of lies coming from Vance. I think the basic approach that Harris took with Trump, not directly trying to debunk the lies but instead baiting him into sounding absurd, is the way to go. Vance has more discipline than Trump, but he’s a smarmy asshole at heart who thinks he’s smarter than he really is, so there’s room to work.
wjca
It’s been that kind of a season, hasn’t it? But at least you got to see them win. Haven’t been a lot of chances for that this year.
Chet Murthy
@SW: In the 1990s, all across American cities, the crime rate dropped. In NYC, they practiced “broken windows” policing: hit hard for any infraction however slight. They claimed that it was the cause of the descending crime rate. But many cities across America didn’t practice such policing, and they also saw descending crime rates. Years later, there is massive evidence that what really did the trick was the phasing-out of lead in gasoline: they call this the “lead-crime hypothesis” and it’s been proven out over and over all over the globe.
What’s my point? Every Western country had massive inflation (some still haven’t fully recovered). How could Biden have done that all over the West, eh? What a magician!
Yeah, try to figure out how to explain that to the imbeciles who pass for “undecided voters” in our country. Go ahead and try.
Mousebumples
@lamh47: as a previous high school teacher, I’m guessing Walz has techniques to deal with lies and misdirection.
We’ll see.
Prescott Cactus
@wjca:
7 runs in the 5th inning. I didn’t think I was at a Sox home game.
wjca
But American Exceptionalism says that the experience of “damn furriners” is irrelevant. We believe in reinventing the wheel.
Sister Golden Bear
@Harrison Wesley: DeSantis to Dark Brandon, “May I have some socialsim. Please.”
wjca
@Prescott Cactus:
I doubt you were surprised by the 7 runs in one inning, per se. The surprise was that it was the Sox scoring them. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev: Hthe.
Go everyone playing against the Brewers.
Chet Murthy
@wjca: What we -believe- in is building shitty, shitty houses. I remember once in 1994 touring a house in D/FW with my mom that she was thinking of buying. It was still under construction. Two stories. The stairs were chipboard, and were already falling apart. Already falling apart. I remember my cousin bought a new house in the Houston area in the early 90s and he told me that basically you had to be doing maintenance from the day you bought it, to keep up with the deterioration.
My colleagues in France were appalled at US housebuilding practices, b/c their houses were built much more solidly.
MagdaInBlack
@Mousebumples: Was thinking along those lines myself.
wjca
Dark Brandon (but not Biden): “Pretend I’m Trump and beg!”
BigJimSlade
@pat: I started listening to Beethoven’s 9th symphony for the first time in like 15 years a few days ago and finished it on a walk today. It was lovely! I continued on with Mahler’s 2nd.
MagdaInBlack
@dmsilev: He sounds absurd without bait. Just imagine what some real bait would do. 😉
Prescott Cactus
@wjca:
Yes, and also surprised at the $5 cans of beer. Fan Appreciation Day’s…
lamh47
Hmmm…someone said that he’ll use this to drop out of the race…hmmm…what happens to the ballot?
Chet Murthy
@lamh47: Shit. Now we get Generic Republican as the opponent. Shit.
Elizabelle
@BigJimSlade: The theme from Huntley & Brinkley!
Chief Oshkosh
@Chet Murthy:
Yep. Even some of the “happiest” places, like The Netherlands, though fantastic IMO, haven’t recovered nearly as well as the US.
Elizabelle
@lamh47: One TV station has a short blurb. They’re calling it in the hospital after an “incident.” Who knows?
Raleigh station:
Jay
@lamh47:
@Chet Murthy:
Past filing dates and the GOP rules, he’s gotta die for a “Generic ReThug” to replace him on the ballot, but State Law, for what it’s worth, says that even if he dies, they gotta vote for him.
BR
@lamh47:
I thought it’s too late for him to drop out? I believe his name stays on the ballot no matter what at this point.
Update:
khead
@Chet Murthy:
No, no. This is bad framing. Try “Joe Biden gave higher inflation to the entire rest of the world on purpose while keeping the USA the lowest! U-S-A! U-S-A!”
Because I’m 100% sure that’s what the MAGA folks would have said if it had been Trump in 2022.
Chet Murthy
@Jay: -oh-. Oh good! Thank you for the reassurance!
Jay
@BR:
Freebasing again, at a “Campaign Function”?
Elizabelle
@BR: Burns. I was wondering if he got stabbed. Maybe he had a run in with a tiki torch.
Mt. Airy is Andy Griffith territory; he was born there, and Mayberry is modeled after it.
Jackie
@Chet Murthy:
He has to officially drop out.
And, who’s going to replace him at this late date? Ballots are printed and mailed out.
Sally
I read on Catturd that the libtards are manipulating these hurricanes in order to eradicate the red states and institute wetlands and sustainable living.
Prescott Cactus
@Jay:
Lap full of scalding pizza while watching a… uhm… movie ?
Jay
@Prescott Cactus:
Bad hot dog? Overcooked Yorkie?
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle: Nah, it was an erection lasting more than four hours.
Citizen Alan
@lamh47: The MSM has spent more than 8 years covering for and sanewashing a man who regularly calls for violence against them. I have not the tiniest shred of sympathy for them.
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Not MSM,
https://distillsocial.com/
Independent Media, “Citizen Journalists”.
Jackie
@Sister Golden Bear: Does he know enough to realize he needs to contact a Dr?
Kent
Actuaries if you want to be technically correct. Accounts just make sure the books are correct. Actuaries model risk and uncertainty.
But yes the larger point is true.
BR
@khead:
Or another framing: Biden’s economy grew faster and stayed more affordable than any other developed economy.
Kent
@Chet Murthy: Nope. Too late to change the ballots. They are already printed. Regardless of what he says, if he now gets the most votes, he is governor.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle:
I rode out Hurricane Matthew at my old beach place in Carteret County, NC (Pine Knoll Shores, Southern Outer Banks) with my ex boyfriend’s best friend. It was quite a few days. Actually, turned out to be a lot of fun. We are both Gin drinkers.😉 My parents had had an oceanfront place from the time I was 5 years old, and none of us over the years had stayed thru a hurricane. I had driven from St. Louis to clean out 2 NC houses and move family pieces back to St. Louis. Plus, there was a small event honoring my mother (she had died a year earlier). My ex’s best friend was back in the country from Colombia and had come along with me to drive a UHaul back. We made the local news, standing in the rain, and being interviewed. Matthew pushed so much water inland that most damage was done by flooding 70-150 miles inland. The UHaul I had lined up ahead of time was washed away with at least 20 more. We finally had to get a U Haul out of Greensboro.
*****
I have been closely following the houses in Rodanthe collapsing north of my old place in PKS. Lots of old friends up that way (plus, my JoJo’s baby sister also adopted in New Mexico now lives in Dare County). All insurance companies will not pay unless the house collapses. Owners cannot even remove contents…so they are all still furnished. There’s a photographer documenting it all….has been for years….he’s putting together a documentary. The house from the Nicholas Sparks’s movie was actually moved a few years ago. The famous “Black Pearl” house was condemned a couple plus years ago. It’s awaiting its fate….the ocean will take it before too long. Lots of YouTubes of it.
Citizen Alan
@Jay: I stand corrected. But I wonder if the actual MSN will report on this even though it reflects poorly on Shitgibbon?
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: While the missus was out of town.
North Carolina is in the aftermath of storm damage. And he’s out … campaigning.
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Of course not. Dolt45 could shoot a FTNYT reporter in the head, center stage at one of his hate rallies and the MSM will never even report it.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: That would be 2016. I remember you posting here about sorting out the houses. Forgot you rode out a hurricane too! Which apparently came ashore near McClellanville SC.
I have seen some partially standing beach houses south of Nags Head a few years ago. I believe it was Matthew damage. Eerie to see the wall torn away, and inside is a pretty living room with wallpaper and framed pictures on the wall, and a staircase going upstairs. Preserved like a doll’s house.
It makes no sense to me that insurance won’t take those things down before they become miles long health hazards. Wonder if the companies will revisit that practice.
lamh47
@Elizabelle: I saw something on twitter about “burns”…huh…from what???
Elizabelle
@lamh47: Gonna be a lot of interest in that “incident.” We will find out.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
The Feds are the insurer.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle:
Google 24149 Ocean Drive S, Lot 5, Rodanthe. I thought it was a joke at first. Zillow listing.
lamh47
Jay
@lamh47:
Cybertruck?
Quinerly
@Jay:
Nope. These houses have homeowners insurance. Private insurance. Private property. Many of these houses were built 40-60 years ago on lots set way back, oceanfront, but with high sand dunes. Beach erosion on OBX.
Jay
@Quinerly:
And private Insurance renewed over the years with out Fed backing despite the erosion?
After the Ross Moore forest fire, we couldn’t get any property insurance, even though it was stopped 30km away from us.
That also jacked our mortgage, because we could not get property insurance, and had to quickly, through increased rates, pay the difference between land value, and land with house and services.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle:
For the life of me, I can’t think of the name of the photographer documenting it all. When it comes to me, I’ll send it to you. Her FB page is wonderful on the subject. He has included a lot of background info on the houses and the insurance issues. People are up in arms about all the debris going into the ocean.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle:
Epic Shutter Photography.
I had forgotten chick photographer. She has a website and a great FB page.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Thank you! I’d be interested.
Chet Murthy
@Quinerly: I googled and found a Zillow listing. The inside is done up really nicely! But then the outside …. well, it’s so damn close to the waves, you just know that one bad storm and it’s all gone, gone, gone baby gone. From what you say, I guess somebody bought it and rehabbed it ? Wow, some people and their money …..
Trivia Man
Time for the Bounce – AFL Grand Final starts now. Who do you barrack for? Swans from Sydney or the Lions of Brisbane? Sucks to be from Melbourne this year!
CatFacts
Not a good situation in East Tennessee — NWS Morristown has reported that the Nolichucky Dam is failing and folks downstream need to evacuate ASAP. With limited power and cell service, I sure hope people have weather radios and can warn their neighbors.
The situation apparently wasn’t good with the dam this afternoon, but it seems it has in fact failed now.
Quinerly
@Jay:
I don’t remember all the ins and outs how all the different policies are for the coast. Yes, some of the insurance is govt backed but day to day erosion and the increasing high tides is different from a tropical storm, hurricane, or N’oreaster rolling in. The big controversy with these homes that have been condemned due to erosion is before the homeowner can collect anything, the house has to collapse with all contents intact into the ocean. I think I read somewhere that the maximum that can be collected now on a condemned house is $250,000. Some houses were physically moved a few years back….but so very expensive, plus the owner has to have a lot to put it on.
As an aside, the videos/articles when they moved Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in ’99 are fascinating.
https://www.nps.gov/caha/learn/historyculture/movingthelighthouse.htm
Quinerly
@Chet Murthy:
The Zillow listing I saw said currently for sale. $495,000. It’s been condemned. In a perfect world and no erosion, it would be at least a couple of million…probably more. I am now far away from the Coastal NC real estate game and glad not to have the worries anymore. Sold the place that had been in my family in 2021. (Southern Outer Banks….the erosion isn’t as bad, but I am convinced it will be eventually). I consider myself a Desert Rat now.
Like I mentioned in another comment, several of these houses at Rodanthe were being moved a few years back. The house (Serendipity) from the movie, Nights in Rodanthe, was moved in 2010. It had been built in the 1980’s. Huge house. There obviously was a limited number of vacant lots.
Quinerly
@CatFacts:
I saw the pictures of I 40 at the border.
NotMax
@lamh47
Virtually caught red-handed.
//
way2blue
Wait! Corned beef & cabbage? It’s not even St Patrick’s Day.
Sister Golden Bear
@lamh47: Friction burns from too much rubbing.
BigJimSlade
@Elizabelle: Well, I don’t know if the show was any good, but at least they had good closing music!
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: After Q1 it is 27-19 for Brisbane.
NotMax
@Trivia Man
Delivering the score, Aussie style.
:)
CatFacts
@Quinerly: Yeah, saw that too. I grew up in that area. Don’t live there now and my family in the region is safe, but it’s rough seeing so much high water in so many of the little TN/NC/VA towns that we visited when I was a kid.
NotMax
Eclectic weekend on TCM (all times Eastern).
The Tin Drum, 2;30 a.m. Saturday.
Where Eagles Dare, 12:15 p.m. Saturday.
Murder, My Sweet, 3:15 p.m. Saturday.
Greed, 5:00 p.m. Sunday.
.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: Lions pulling away late Q2.
8-7-55 to just 4-2-26
Trivia Man
@NotMax: What a wild coincidence! The players have XXXX on their shorts!!
Pete Downunder
@Trivia Man: Go Lions from this Brisbane guy. Americans generally have no clue about AFL, but it’s actually an amazing sport with incredibly fit players.
Quinerly
This sucks.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4904725-north-carolina-court-appeals-overturns/
Trivia Man
@Pete Downunder: I played for several years, enjoyed it very much. Tried last year but was out of shape and didn’t get much game time. Hoping to go for a kick next week, won’t be a game but still fun to kick it around.
Pete Downunder
@Trivia Man: I’ve never played. By the time I got to Australia and learned about it I was way too old but even in my youth I would never have had the endurance. I read that in American football on average the ball is only in motion for about 11 minutes in a three hour game.
rikyrah
@lamh47: 😠😠😠😠
Betty
@lamh47: Cat 2 doesn’t tell the story. That is the wind speed. It is usually the water that does the most damage and kills the most people. They don’t focus on that or categorize it.
different-church-lady
@Quinerly: “And so castles made of sand…”
Starfish
@Tom Levenson: There are some strange things brewing in insurance land, and I wish someone would write more about them. I am hearing about people unable to get homeowner’s insurance when they are trying to buy houses if the roof is over ten years old. This seems like a huge waste if people have ten years on a 30 year roof, and their insurance is forcing them to get a new one.
There are certain places that are having their insurance pullled due to fire danger.
I think Florida has better building standards than some other places due to the dangers of hurricanes. In this case, other nearby states may need to adopt Florida’s standards. But that makes houses expensive in places where people are not making a lot of money.
Starfish
@Betty: She knows. She lived in New Orleans.
And the homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover damage caused by floods. That is what flood insurance is for. And the homeowner’s insurance will play games to minimize what they are going to pay for.
wjca
@Starfish: Something similar in California. Basic homeowners insurance doesn’t cover earthquake damage. Need a separate policy for that. Go figure.