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David Friedman / NBC News file
Joe Casale, far right, watches workers remove debris from his flooded home in Breezy Point, N.Y., on Nov. 1.
BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- A first-of-its-kind home repair program pioneered by the federal government and local agencies has made thousands of New York City homes livable since Hurricane Sandy, but thousands of other homeowners are still waiting for help, and growing more frustrated with each passing day.
“Nobody communicates anything to you,” said Joe Casale, a 52-year-old service engineer who lives in Breezy Point with his wife, Katie, and three sons. “I have to keep on calling up and busting people’s chops to find out what’s going on. It’s ridiculous. … It’s not rapid for one. We started up on Nov. 15 and they’re just getting around to us now. … They held us back a good month I would say.”
Despite assessments like Casale's, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, widely vilified for its response after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has mostly avoided a similar public relations disaster in the wake of Sandy. FEMA officials say that’s at least partly due to the Rapid Repairs program, aimed at getting victims back home quickly so they can focus on rebuilding.
The program, which provides free utility repairs and replacement equipment like water heaters and boilers to qualified homeowners, has restored services to more than 11,800 residences in New York City, officials say. Work is under way on about 1,900 more dwellings.
Two neighboring New York counties and two New Jersey communities are also running the same program, which they call STEP (Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power).
While the idea of Rapid Repairs initially received positive reviews, critics say the execution has been far from flawless. Nearly three months after the Oct. 29 storm, some 7,000 New York City households have not yet received help through the program.
That assessment is echoed by those still waiting, who tell stories of canceled or missed appointments, improperly installed equipment and a disorganized bureaucracy where their complaints fall on deaf ears.
Barry Fischer, a 45-year-old electrician who also lives in this coastal New York City enclave with his wife, Christina, and their five children, called the program “nonexistent,” noting they had been waiting since mid-November for electrical work and a hot water heater.
His wife, a 35-year-old college professor, said she had been going to the Rapid Repairs’ offices every day to find out when the workers would come to her home. She also made dozens of calls, chased contractors’ trucks through her neighborhood on foot and in her car, and one time even tried to cut them off and block them in with her vehicle in order to force a conversation.
The final straw came last week, when she met a Rapid Repairs’ worker looking for a nearby home that is only occupied in the summer.
“I was really freaking out,” she said. “… And that’s terrible. Why should somebody be really that crazy in order to get assistance?”
David Friedman / NBC News
Christina Fischer plays with her disabled daughter Georgia, 4, and son Timothy, 7, who is severely hearing impaired, after school on Jan. 14 in Rockaway Beach, N.Y.
Officials overseeing the program acknowledge there have been missteps and say they understand the frustration building among those who still don’t have basic utilities. But they defend the premise of Rapid Repairs -- that residents can rebuild their homes much more quickly when they are living in them -- and vow to learn from the mistakes, some of which resulted from their efforts to act decisively.
The program was launched two weeks after the storm struck, leaving about 20,000 residential buildings in the city with some damage or disruption to their utilities.
“We thought that with some basic repair work … that would enable families to basically shelter in place, be in their homes, be safe and then begin the real work of rebuilding and doing it in their communities not away from (them),” Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations, told NBC News. “We wanted to move fast.”
For many Sandy victims, that’s what happened.
Nine general contractors hired by the city, who in turn have more than 100 subcontractors working with them, had completed repairs on more than 6,800 buildings, comprising 11,800 residential units, as of Jan. 21, according to the mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery. Crews had started work on about 1,900 others.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.
About 3,000 other households opted out of the program for various reasons, including not wanting to wait for repairs, Holloway said, leaving fewer than 7,000 residences still waiting.
Homeowners had from Nov. 13 through Jan. 14 to sign up for the pilot program. The city will eventually submit the bill to FEMA, which preliminarily authorized spending of up to $500 million and is expected to reimburse between 80 percent and 90 percent of the cost.
The cost for each household is supposed to be about $10,000, though it could go higher depending on the work required, said Michael Byrne, the senior FEMA official in New York state for the Sandy response and recovery.
FEMA said it no longer uses the ubiquitous travel trailers that were deployed to temporarily house thousands of Katrina victims, and Holloway and Byrne said mobile homes weren’t viable in the densely-populated urban environment of New York City. They also carry a hefty price tag of $250,000, and take months to set up, they said.
Those already helped by the program said they're happy with the results.
Fran McCabe, who responded to an NBC News inquiry about the program on Facebook, wrote: “Waited for weeks but finally got a hot water heater and then a few weeks later got a new furnace. Work crews were WONDERFUL. … We're very grateful to the city for this program. It would have been much faster to do the repairs privately but the cost was a hardship for us at this time.”
But for families like the Fischers, whose children include a 7-year-old son who is severely hearing impaired and a 4-year-old daughter with Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, a common nerve disorder that can make it hard to walk, and apraxia, a speech disorder, the intended jumpstart has proven to be a roadblock.
They still don’t have central heat, hot water or working toilets in their two-story home, which forced them to sign a one-year rental agreement on a house in Jackson Heights in northern Queens. They’ve had to dip into Barry’s 401(k) savings, since the FEMA rental aid doesn’t cover their entire rent, and they have to pay their mortgage and co-op fees on a home they can’t live in. Adding to the financial strain: Their insurance will cover just one-third of the $300,000 cost to rebuild.
'Why ... all this insanity?'
While the city has an “active high priority list” for residents in the greatest need of shelter, including the elderly and disabled, and Christina had informed the program many times about her disabled children, she found out last week that they weren’t on it.
Finally, a Rapid Repairs’ plumber showed up with a new boiler last Friday, Christina Fischer said. In the days since, electricians have done most of the wiring though there is still no heating system for the first floor.
“I don’t understand why a family with disabled children would have had to go through all this insanity in order to get this done when this was the whole kind of point of the program … to help the people who needed it most from the get-go,” she said. “It came to me going there every day, me becoming very threatening for it to get done, and I think that’s really, really unfortunate.”
It's been two and a half months since Superstorm Sandy barreled through New Jersey and New York, but people are still desperately awaiting aid. NBC's Katy Tur reports.
Holloway, the deputy mayor of operations, and Byrne, of FEMA, acknowledge that there were challenges getting the pilot program up and running, which led to some delays.
Holloway said they switched from a “first-in, first-out” service model to a block-by-block method in order to avoid “wasting half a shift in transport.” They also had to order equipment and set up staging areas for it that were easy for contractors to access.
“There have been a lot of challenges setting this up,” he said, noting it was “unfortunate” some of the people who signed up early “probably have now had to wait longer than really they expected to and more than we would have liked them to.”
Holloway said the work has accelerated as the process has improved, noting that for a recent three-week period crews had worked on 100 homes a day on average. He said the program also is less expensive per household than mobile homes, though he could not say how much money the overall city bill will be.
Despite the problems, Byrne and Holloway both say they believe it could become a model for disaster response.
“I think it will end up being pretty remarkable that families are back in much faster than they might have been under a different model where you might … go rent a place for a year and then come back,” Holloway said. “… That is a terrible option for a homeowner and a family, and it’s terrible for a neighborhood.”
David Abramson, deputy director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said he was initially impressed with the Rapid Repairs’ concept because it addressed some key barriers facing communities when they begin the recovery process, such as having credentialed and trusted contractors.
But he said execution of the program has been spotty.
“I certainly don’t want to throw them under the bus so quickly because they’re having a lot of hiccups in the initial phase,” he said, “(but) they’re clearly having major issues.”
“I think it falls in the category of good plan, poor implementation,” he added.
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Cranes work to remove several feet of sand deposited on Ocean Avenue by Hurricane Sandy in Sea Bright, N.J., on Oct. 31.
In the suburban New York City counties of Suffolk and Nassau, where the STEP program was announced in mid-November, more than 540 homes had been repaired by Jan. 15, out of some 2,350 households that signed up, according to FEMA.
The STEP program also is operating in two coastal New Jersey communities: Sea Bright, where 115 property owners have signed up, and in Ocean City, where enrollment data was not available.
Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long told NBC News work there is expected to begin in mid-March. A town meeting last week addressed STEP, and she said people were "grateful (for the program), they want to come home." Very few residents have insurance settlements, or they've come in much lower than their losses, leaving many of them in limbo.
Retired grandparents Jeanne and Burt Metz lost their home when Superstorm Sandy hit Breezy Point, New York. A volunteer organization told the couple that their floors and walls would be rebuilt – but little did the Metz family know that hundreds of people were working to resurrect their entire house. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
“Sandy devastated this little town,” she said. “We lost every business, 75 percent of our homes are not habitable. It’s a ghost town. ... Almost three months later, we are not getting very far. And so something like STEP at least gives us a chance to start moving back to the recovery.”
But some of those in New York City who are just beginning to receive help from Rapid Repairs said they wish they had never waited on it.
Casale, the Breezy Point engineer, had to take a loan from his brother-in-law to help cover repairs he and his wife started on their own.
They’ve done most of the electrical work, but with no heat and water, paint wouldn't dry and they couldn’t get someone to work on their kitchen due to the cold.
They finally received a hot water heater and a boiler on Jan. 11, but after the installation was finished the boiler began leaking and shorted out the electronic controls on Monday. They’re now waiting for a replacement part to arrive.
“It was one big fiasco after another,” Katie Casale, 49, a personal assistant at an insurance company, said Tuesday.
On top of that, Joe Casale found out from Rapid Repairs on Monday that the contractor had already submitted a bill saying the work was complete.
“I’m paying rent and I’m paying a mortgage for three months, so how rapid is rapid?” he said. “It’s not a rapid repair. … We wanted to get back in here.”
Like the Casales, Christina Fischer said her family wishes they hadn't had to rely on the program.
“Very few of us would have waited for Rapid Repairs if we all had the money to do this, but we don’t,” she said. The program is “a great idea … but winter’s upon us and it’s not done.”
Related:
Superstorm Sandy: Residents consider future as demolitions begin in Breezy Point
Sandy-struck Breezy Point facing 'greatest historical challenge'
Sandy victims on the move, but temporary housing 'will never be ... home'
Leave a Comment:
foolish is the man who builds upon the sand.. Hello is it just me or maybe people should not build along rivers, oceans, or other bodies of water that have a tendany to FLOOD.. You should carry flood/hurricain insurance, or better yet live inland a bit.. Why do Americans think that they deserve a bailout for establishing a huge city at sea level by the damn sea? or on Rivers known to flood and go where they want. Like anything can be done to stop a hurricain. Here's an eye opener.. Geology 101, Rivers flow, yep flow and tend to move around, and when you dam them up, dig them out, barrier them into a certain path, they will over flow their cages and FLOW.. If your a city and you are say right next to the ocean, maybe you should have a city emergency fund for this sort of thing... common sense people.
"The program, which provides free utility repairs and replacement equipment like water heaters and boilers to qualified homeowners"
What does qualified mean?
"FEMA said it no longer uses the ubiquitous travel trailers that were deployed to temporarily house thousands of Katrina victims, and Holloway and Byrne said mobile homes weren't viable in the densely-populated urban environment of New York City. They also carry a hefty price tag of $250,000, and take months to set up, they said."
When someone in the private sector spends $250,000, they get a building lot and a house. When the government spends your money, the government gets a trailer for the same money. And there are those in Washington that still say we do not have a spending problem. Unless we can fire them all, we are doomed.
Remember why people said they loved living along the coastline in LA?
The breeze on the beaches carried away all of the smog from the city. Sad, but true.
You're doing a great job Barack!!
Oh right, it's not your responsibility even though you said you would guarantee the red tape cutting.
You liberals bash Bush for his Katrina handling, how many of you are willing to bash Obama for the same? You see it is not the President but all Government that is inept at what they do, but somehow you will find a way to blame one party as the culprit and still glorify the anointed one.
Reclassify city as...CHOCOLATE...and the funds will roll right in. They are currently classified as...VANILLA...and that is boring...so aid is slow.
I hope these people aren't holding their breathes, all those campaign promises are now null and void, since the election is over with !!
REB-1013231
Maybe Obama should drop everything and just focus on the Sandy Victims. Then, you can fault him for something else right?
At least he's not like Romney. "The states and the private sector should be responsible for helping these people".. and then 1 week before the election 'I fully support FEMA"
Bottomline... The areas that are hardest hit by these storms have representatives in Congress. They and President Obama need to work just a bit harder to bring aid to these people.
While I feel for these people for what they are dealing with, I do not understand why the government (i.e. taxpayers) should be paying for repairs to private homes. These people should have had homeowners insurance if they were too stupid to have insurance or to cheap to take out adequate coverage that is their own fault. Why are my tax dollars going to pay for their mistakes. These people decided to save money by either not carrying appropriate insurance at all or skimping on the coverage to save money on premiums. Why should other now foot the bill for their shortsightedness. Repairing damage to a private home should be the responsibility of the homeowner, not the taxpayer. If the people are renting the home then it is the responsibility of their landlord who owns the building to pay for repairs. I can understand emergency assistance in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but paying for permanent repairs should not be on the taxpayers dime. When my rental property was left temporarily uninhabitable due to a fire in the building my insurance covered the costs and reimbursed me for the lost rental income. I payed an insurance premium to make sure that I was covered for situations like this. If others are too stupid to carry appropriate insurance that is their problem, not the governments.
I wonder how many of these peeps who's homes were destroyed by Sandy were the same ones CRYING about peeps in New Orleans getting hand outs....why can't these peeps pull themselves up by their boot straps....why are they waiting for the Fed Gov't to help them out....why weren't they prepared for the storm.....these were all the same questions being asked after Katrina.....it's sad really....I hope they get help and it just proves the point that u NEVER know till you've been there yourself!!!
Get in line behind New Orleans, hold your breath and believe the hollow promises from DC.
ItsAboutTime-3704531 - But Romney's not the president, BHO is and he's the one who guaranteed no red tape or delays.
You know that if Bush were president he would be taking heat every day on every network and in every paper. What do you hear now, just deafining silence.
And by the way, as a former Federal bureaucrat I can tell you for a fact that if you sit and wait for the government and hope for efficiency and compassion you're an idiot and a fool.
Instead of calling the program FEMA they should call it FUBAR..........
I live in Kansas. We have Tornadoes. Hundreds every year. Whether you lose your house or town it is the same. No insurance, no help. The Federal Government will SOMETIMES help with infrastructure such as sewage and water or maybe a financial loan in urban areas. Nobody here sets around waiting for a hand out. Nobody owes anybody anything. No insurance, no help. Move on.
Most of this should have been covered by insurance. If you bought a million dollar home ten years ago and make 250,000 a year the insurance company pays for everything, but if you bought you home in 1965 and are retired and on a fixed income they low ball you. The truth is Insurance companies not only assess the damage to your home but also your ability to afford a lawyer to fight them for full compensation. If they think you can't afford to fight they'll try to screw you. Plain and simple.
Where are the insurance companys? and who would pay all that money to live so near the ocean and not have it?Immediately After Katrina President Bush was inundated with calls about the handling of the victims of that tragedy. While the real cause was the mayor of New Orleans, governor of Louisiana and FEMA. This was a CF from the beginning and Preident Bush was not a fault for the fumblings at all the other levels. One lesson that we should all come away from this is that these situations should be handled at the state and local level. FEMA is a waste of time in almost every tragedy and I have never heard a good word about them.
obama doesnt care about white people
Barry Fischer, a 45-year-old electrician who also lives in this coastal New York City enclave with his wife, Christina, and their five children, called the program “nonexistent,” noting that they had been waiting since mid-November for electrical work and a hot water heater.His wife, a 35-year-old college professor...
A. Two employed professionals are running/chasing after trucks in their neighborhood to get a free hot water heater and electrical work 2 months after a storm. hummm.
B. Wouldn't homeowners/flood insurance cover this...humm
C. Or did they not realize that you purchased a house at sea level next to an ocean that produces hurricanes and did not purchase flood insurance.. humm
Recap..Two professionals, purchase a house near an ocean that produces ( at has for thousands of years) hurricanes and voluntarily do not purchase flood insurance and now are chasing after a fema truck for a free hot waterheater..humm... has our society really became that brain dead??
So why are taxpayers paying the tab for those beach front properties??
It's a program to build dependency. An Electrician sitting on his kiester for months waiting for a "FREE" gubmint program to come install a water heater. He should have had it done himself by now. One Friend one one weekend and it should have been done. And his wife a college Prof. The two are making plenty of dough to cover a few hundred bucks for the heater and a weekend to install it.
Because of this welfare mentality you have these people crying for months waiting for a freebie. Next year they'll be bit**ing about "those people" on welfare. and railing against anyone trying to raise their taxes.
Then there is the fraud. contractors billing the gubmint for nothing. Gubmint employees writing checks to people who may not have suffered the damage, or had insurance already reimburse them or sent a bill in just to see if the dummies will pay it - they do.
REB
Pudge controls the weather not Obama. That's why Lilo has to bring him a sandwich ;-)
John,
Does the view from your front porch include a broken refrigerator and few old cars on concrete blocks?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I heard a bunch of our elected dirtbags, from the president on down, talking about how great of a job they did for the Hurricane Sandy victims.
What I'm waiting for is for Kanye West to come out and say the reason that this is being so mishandled is because Barack Obama doesn't care about white people.
I keep reading so many post about flood insurance. Maybe it is different from state to state I do not know as I have only lived in Georgia and we have to have flood insurance to buy a home with a mortgage if we live in an area were we are a certain measurement below sea level (I am from Savannah don't live there now but did buy a house and had to have this type of insurance even thou I lived 30 to 40 minutes away from the ocean)- it is required or no mortgage.
So here is my question is it not required of other states that are not land locked? and if not why?
Hey voters, this is happening under Obama's watch. Remember, you voted for this!
I'm confused. I thought Obama said he was going to have the government save the day.
I also heard many music industry stars are having a big concert to raise money. Why? I thought Obama was going to have the Feds take care of all this by now.
Keep hoping for change folks.
It's been said before, but why is there not an outcry from the Left about how "Obama's handling this" vs how "Bush handled Katrina"? The same FEMA. The same folks languishing in destitution. Could it be a sharp depiction of political hypocrisy on the Left?? Me-so-sure-think-so!!
FEMA shouldn't even exist, especially not to give my tax dollars to private home owners who should have had adequate insurance on their dwelling. Let the private insurance companies do their jobs. As for infrastructure and municipal property, let the ACOE take care of that, that is what they are there for.
WTf is going on what happened to all that money that we had to rush through so quickly? Geese I hope that money has not been spent somewhere else. Are worst I hope it isnt just sitting around somewhere because we had to have it before the first of the year. I mean the repuks in the house have passed the bill so who in the hell can we blame now?
We're blaming the President for these idiots that live in an area capable of flooding and NOT buying flood insurance? We are blaming the President for those who DO have insurance not getting off their butts and starting to rebuild but instead wait for FEMA to do everything?
We can blame both presidents for what happens to FEMA but here is the real thing: Both of them thought their respective FEMA directors had a grasp on things. Katrina showed that they were wrong. In comes the next guy- now we are finding out that he ALSO didn't have his shift together. (clever huh?) . You don't find these things out until AFTER a disaster folks. Stop backseat driving and look at the source of the problem: The Director of FEMA...which we all know stands for:
Fix Everything My @ss.
The difference here is that FEMA can't do anything without money, and if you recall, the disaster relief funds for the Sandy victims were passed quickly by the Senate, but languished for months in the House of Representatives because one particular party was too busy with OTHER things.
7,000 New York City households have not yet received help through the program.
a 45-year-old electrician who also lives in this coastal New York City enclave with his wife, Christina, and their five children, called the program "nonexistent," noting that they had been waiting since mid-November for electrical work and a hot water heater.
.
.
Yes... the devastation is overwhelming..... 7,000 homes could never get instant gratification on repairs....
unless an army of 28,000 licensed contractors goes out fully equipped with supplies for repairs.
An electrician waiting for free electrical work? Eminent domain - 'doze and forever beach the whole thing.
Many people living in New Orleans, did not carry flood insurance; because some of the area had not flooded in 200 years; those living on the beaches, should know that it was just a matter of time before a tidal flood would hit them; unless they did not have a mortgage on their home , the lenders would require flood insurance; let us look into where the insurance money went, did the lenders apply it to their loan or what .
It's Bush's fault,
Whoops, wrong hurricane, but anyway, it will never be said that "It's Obama's fault" - the media is too biased for that.
Oh gee, thanks for finally covering this, two and a half months after the election..........
Bree
Here in Iowa it has to do with the flood plain, if you reside in anything under the 100 year flood plain , you must carry flood insurance. above it, natural disaster insurance, it amounts to the same thing, in either case the insurance people ALWAYS find a "clause" so they don't have to pay off. In this particular case, much as Katrina, the gulf oil spill, and anything large, they simply shove it off on fema ( aka taxpayers) ...
interesting side note, after the flood of 93 the COE confiscated ALL property in this county that was near the river. Family places that had been there for 50 years that never asked for their help in any way, were torn down. Your Govt. tax dollars at work.
The media hammered Bush for Katrina, the media doesn't even mention Obama for Sandy.
This is the difference folks. The power of the media.
Do people know that the former mayor of New Orleans, the one who was in charge during Katrina, was recently charged with 31 counts? The media did not make a big deal out of it.
During Katrina, the local & state governments were horrible. Local corruption was at a high during the time of Katrina. Bush realized the incompetence from them and got things moving after the fact. Things got better.
My very firsts thoughts, after the destruction was that the insurance companies had a lot of work to do. Why in the world is the state, and then FEMA backing all this? I own a home out in the hinterland, it is now just about 40 years old, and from day one has been insured. I do not have flood insurance, because I sit on a hill, some 200 feet above even the closest dry stream bed, and when I asked about it, I was told it was not available for me, being in an area that has never suffered a flood (at least since Noah). After the earthquake last year, I had called my insurance agent about another subject (renewal) and dropped the question about earthquake protection. He said, "yes it is in your policy, and so is tornado coverage", which I had thought I had read, several years ago. I went back and found it in the policy, and it shocked me. Your building has to be completely gone, in order to replace it, of course, but it also has to be completely gone in order to just get a percentage of repair costs, in an earthquake. In other word: damages of say $15,000, would only be repaired up to $1,500, and the rest left to the insured. What a deal.
But, these folks should have all had insurance, and insured at full cost of replacement, plus all the furniture, washer/dryer/heating system, etc. Also, a home owners policy would cover incidentals such as clothing, aunt Elaines' dining set, camping equipment, Christmas decoration, and on and on. One should always have an updated list of EVERYTHING they own, and keep it someplace else, like in a bank vault, or Uncle Ernests' house, a 1000 miles away. Mine is a two hour video, showing almost every item we own, with my voice giving its approx purchase date, its value, or initial cost, etc. It resides at our bank (on much higher ground than anything around it)in a vault. It is occasionally added to by photos of anything of higher value, we have bought recently. None of this will replace the photos of the Kids receiving their Eagle Scout award, or standing and holding their first lost tooth for the camera, but all those are on a USB pen drive, also in that vault, along with birth certificates, marriage licenses, a copy of our will, etc. People ARE responsible for themselves, and insurance companies are responsible to cover them. Flood insurance itself is an oddball, because it is backed by government funding. The insurance fees for that policy rider are supposed to go into a specific flood fund, earning interest of course, which is to pay back for losses. If it is such a large flood as what we are seeing here, then the government has the responsibility to cover excess losses, without that, the companies simply would not sell the coverage. Insurance is a bet: you are betting you will have an accident or loss, the company is betting you will not. In this case, they lost, and need to get off their duffs.
While the liberals and the media (one-in-the-same) have made the erroneous claim that Sandy was as bad or worse than Katrina, the fact is Sandy was a like a fart-in-a-whirlwind in comparison to Katrina. Yet the response has been pathetic, in keeping with the overall performance of Obozo. It is beyond me that 52% of the country feltObozo had done a job worthy of being re-elected, and that was before Sandy. I hope and pray our country survives 4 more years of this a$$wipe at the helm.
IAScooterTramp - Thanks I just know about my own home and area the first bad storm I can remember as a child was David - but when I purchased my first home in 1989 I had to have flood insurance in fact I asked about it - thank goodness it was never needed thou funny enough while we were building our home one hit Charleston (Hugo) thou we thought it was coming towards us that is when I demanded to have it at all times while leaving in a coastal town.
Thank you for the other information you gave funny how we always see the aftermath for a few weeks then nothing till the town(s) come back. Once again thank you for taking the time to answer my questions hope you have a nice week.
IT'S STILL BUSH'S FAULT!!!! (Someone else said it first, but obviously everyone is still thinking it.)
If this happened while GWB was president, the NYT would be HOWLING for his head, and we would be well into IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS by now, not to mention making his re-election impossible.
Bernard Goldberg, in his 2008 book "Slobbering Love Affair" was right. The Leftist/Marxist NYC based news media is the propaganda ministry for this Liberal Wet Dream president. The economy could crash, the President unilaterally surrender our country to the U.N., Russia and China, give away ALL our military technology including all our nuclear weapons, and Pravda (oops, I mean the New York Times, Washington Post and MSNBC) would still call it good. Yep, he's a genius, the smartest president ever. (Smarter than Thomas Jefferson? James Madison? John Adams? Woodrow Wilson?). I'm sure that's why his college and law school transcripts (and scholarship applications) remain under lock and key.
I’m wondering if anyone has heard of a book by an ex-CIA counter-intel and counter-terrorism expert on the origins of Political Correctness, a form of censorship and propaganda with a specific Marxist origin. Kent Clizbe, in his book "Willing Accomplices" [Ashburn, VA: ANDEMCA Press, 2011--Available on Kindle from Amazon_com and from KentClizbe_com in paperback] supports his assertion that PC was a ready-made "payload" of ideology to demoralize and divide America. This was infused into Academia, Hollywood and the press since the 1920s by influence agents under the direct control of Lenin's KGB. Hollywood's Otto Katz, George S. Counts of Columbia University Teacher's College and the New York Times were specific vehicles (either "dupes" or "willing accomplices") for Willi Muenzenberg's creed (as recounted by his wife Babbette Gross--any relation to Teri Gross of NPR?) which advanced the main goals of COMINTERN, Communism International, while specifically avoiding self-identification with Stalin or the USSR. Clizbe's book makes for some interesting reading, if you're curious about where PC came from--highly referenced and persuasive, if you dare.
Nope, no possibility of a Marxist coup here. It has already happened, with NYT, WAPO and MSNBC leading the way.
FEMA not responding, the Press BURYING the suffering of Sandy victims until well after the election, and the President vacationing in Hawaii? It's STILL Bush's fault...
resident1728 "But, these folks should have all had insurance, and insured at full cost of replacement, plus all the furniture, washer/dryer/heating system, etc."
Why bother, when the government fixes it for free for the irresponsible ones?
The 'responsible' ones pay twice - Once for their own insurance, and a second time in more taxes to pay for the 'irresponsible' ones.
It's the same with virtually every government program to help the 'disadvantaged' - 'free' services for people who make bad decisions in their lives.
Of course there are exceptions, but the vast majority of 'free' services provided by the government goes to help people that caused their own problems, and now the taxpayers pay to prevent them from 'suffering the consequences'. That's a Liberal's idea of 'compassion'.
You're comment shows a complete lack of understanding of what Romney wanted. There would have been no disbanding of FEMA. FEMA would have continued to be a weak government program that takes forever for anything to happen, and would largely remain nothing more than an 800 number and a free giftcard.
Romney's point on the topic was to give the states more control on how to utilize the resources in order to better react to situations like Sandy hitting the east coast. FEMA would still remain, and would be in a support role to the states, it's just the states would be able to give more direction on how to utilize the resources they are given! This would work vastly better than the way FEMA currently works!!
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
And you Libbies just can't get enough government can you? This is a national embarrassment but Barrack Hussein and the complicit media will just continue the status quo because this doesn't help Barrack in any way. He doesn't care about anything unless it helps him or promotes his statist ideology.
As government grows it becomes more and more inefficient and unsustainable. If you remember, a day after hurricane Sandy was over there was fierce discussion about whether the New York City Marathon would go on. Initially it was decided to proceed with the Marathon.
THE NEXT DAY THE PRIVATE COMPANY IN CHARGE HAD THE TENT, GENERATORS AND SUPPLIES SET UP AT THE STARTING LINE ON STATEN ISLAND!!!!!!
The private sector company could get the tent, water, food, the sponsors signs for the marathon and everything else up and running in ONE DAY in a place devastated by weather.
IN THE MEANTIME THE LOCAL FEMA OFFICE WAS CLOSED BECAUSE OF "WEATHER"!!!!!!
We have government auditors that spent five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.
And you Liberal buffoons want to pay more taxes to continue the corruption.
When our OWN government tells us our OWN government is almost 25% ineffective, our only response should be to reduce the size of government by that much and keep the money in OUR pockets.
Unless you're so indoctrinated that you can't take care of yourself and feel some criminal bureaucrat can do it better than you can.
OMG how is Sandy or Katrina the presidents fault? I don't care what the news says or anythig like that, I see the truth myself I do not need their input. Cram it Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS I watch Free Speech TV and Democracy Now or Mosaic on LinkTv.
Why can't he do the electrical work himself? My guess would be that this is his summer house. Same with the other people who applied in mid-November. The storm hit in October, why did they wait two weeks to contact FEMA? I contacted FEMA the day after the storm. While my house sustained relatively little damage, most of it was repaired by Thanksgiving. Everything else was fixed by Christmas, with the exception of the sand I have to remove from the property. I don't know if it would have been any different if I lived in New York, but in this part of New Jersey FEMA did a great job. Maybe it's the NYC bureaucracy and not FEMA's fault, by I have no complaints about the way FEMA handled my situation.
As I recall, after Katrina, people were huddled at the super dome for a week, with no water / food or a response of any kind from the government, while bush said they were doing a great job !!~!!
haven't seen anything like that from Sandy and the comparison to Katrina is not even close
As I recall, it was more like 3 days, and resources were in the area, though the local and state government blocked the ability of the Federal governments response.
Kinda like they blocked the use of all those school buses that could have shuttled a lot of people out of the area, instead they sat and the buses too became victim to the Katrina.
Fema is not the bank. All your questions should be brought to congress. Who waited so long to vote on it? The republicans in congress. Look at who opposed it republicans. Now its republicans who are complaining it took so long. Your for it and against at the same time. Get your poop in a group and make up your minds.
For centuries man has lived by the water, water is essential to life and complex city water systems with pumps, water treatment plants etc. are only 100-150 years old. Most of these neighborhoods are older than that. What would the cost be to bulldoze the whole area, environmental clean up, relocate everyone, relocate all utilities, infrastructure and local business's required for a community. Although in the long run this might be a good idea and a way for us to modernize our infrastructure and start to prepare for the future. We should not rush into this, it really needs long term planning, although I am sure by the time all the private contractors and government agencies are through they will screw it up.
I remember posting when the storm was coming and telling people in evacuation zones to evacuate and all the naysayers that said it was all hype, that it was only a cat1, welcome to hurricane country. You have to learn to rely on yourself family and friends in the aftermath, you need to have groups of people that will support each other. This gridlock is to be expected, it will never be just a couple of homes that get damaged. These storms do damage on a massive scale and it takes a long time to recover, you cannot rely solely on the government, insurance companies, and contractors. We are still in the short term recovery, the timing leading into winter was bad, but you can always count on Murphy's Law.
With the shift of the Earths axis from the Indian ocean tsunami in 2004 and weather changes due to global warming(man made or naturally occurring, not opening that debate) the entire Eastern Seaboard is now hurricane country and needs to prepare as such. This time they were not prepared and the locals had no real understanding what was headed their way, the initiation is not yet over.
This time we need to help them rebuild, although in the future they need to prepare much better. If you live in low lying areas you are in a flood zone and must have flood insurance on top of all the other insurance's needed. Building codes need to be increased to meet hurricane standards, basements may no longer be a viable option in most homes. If you have beachfront or close to beachfront property that you cannot afford all the necessary insurance and recovery costs, it is time to sell and relocate inland to where you can afford to live. You will be able to get top dollar for beachfront property regardless of the current condition.
An electrician waiting for free electrical work is unconscionable, if he needs the hardware to do the work then he should be supplied with the necessary hardware and get his but to work. If he has a friend who is a plumber the friend should be helping with the water heater and vise versa. When their homes are repaired to the level they are trained to handle they should then help others in the community. In times of disaster the community has to put their differences away and work together, if not don't expect help. We do it here in Florida every storm and the people in tornado country do the same, it is time for these people to take care of their community along with the aide they are getting. This recovery will realistically take 2-3 years to be complete.
The electrician and the plumber are too busy gouging the community.
Do you understand that Congress includes both the House of Representatives, and the Senate and all the Republicans and Democrats throughout?
Secondly, what was stopping either House Democrats, or Senate Democrats from setting forth a bill to get the ball rolling? NOTHING!! It was in fact the Democrats packing the bill full of pork. So instead of a bill that would go to the sole benefit for those ravished by Sandy, it now includes loads of pork going to states that have nothing to do with the northeast. That's why the Republicans initially voted against it. It's amazing that folks will blame the Republicans but will act like Senate Democrats that are in power have their hands tied behind their backs. Get real Smitty
"Hi, I am from the government and here to help you."
Uhhhhh, sounds just like a Progressive.
I am putting this as a reply so it will be on the first page but really replying is worthless as too many people here just want to bash FEMA and Obama ala what happened with Katrina. However, with current disasters, especially Sandy, FEMA was chartered by the Administration to lean forward and jump in immediately which they did. Everyone here today should educate themselves by going to the FEMA.gov website. This particular page lists common questions and answers which should lead you to other pages to EDUCATE yourselves. http://www.fema.gov/disaster-assistance-frequently-asked-questions#14 pertaining to after the disaster.
None of us live in a potential disaster free zone. I myself do not live in a potential flood plain due to the topography of the land but we are still subject to wildfires, tornados, ice storms, severe blizzards, the historical earthquake...... and we are considered one of the safer areas to live in. The federal gov`t / FEMA is not your insurance company. If you do not have homeowners insurance or flood insurance then the most you will get is assistance for temporary housing while you sort yourself out. If you have both of those then you are expected to first make a claim for such against your insurance policy. Your insurance policy should provide funds for temporary housing. We should all re-read our policies to see how much that is but generally it is the median cost of housing sized to your needs (not your wants) and for 12 months. If you flooded out without flood insurance then you may have a problem. This is where FEMA will provide assistance as this story points out.
However, this is the real world. There are no wizards or witches or genies to fix every house/block/community all at one time. Two months to still be working on thousands of homes is not unreasonable. Especially when the first several weeks were focused on fixing the major power lines and other infrastructure (like roads and bridges). FEMA/State set up emergency evac centers right off. Many did not use them. FEMA/State have numerous Disaster Response Centers set up where people can go to access to information via computer and pamphlets, they can register for disaster ASSISTANCE on line, and at least initially the insurance companies have reps there but after two months they are probably gone. You can find them on fema.gov
The electrician and the professor (sounds like a movie title) should have had insurance and flood insurance. Their insurer should have paid out enough to cover temporary housing. They could have already contracted to have the electrical, water and heater done on their own. But see then they are using their money to make the house habitable to live in while it is repaired and they want to use Our money instead. So you have to wait. Just like the several thousand homes that are still in the queue. That is what happens after a disaster. If doing themselves is not possible because infrastructure repairs are needed first then they should be living elsewhere for a while.....with family or friends (and if they have neither they should see as counselor as to why).
FYI. FEMA will not make up for the lack of insurance or insufficient insurance. Those homeowners are able to get low interest loans to fix their homes and those have to be paid back just like any other loan or mortgage. If they can`t do that or don`t want to do that then they have to be looking for someone to buy the scrapheap and use that money to pay off their mortgage and relocate.
And folks.....this is all not unreasonable and if you are struck by a disaster you would want your fellow Americans to come to your assistance too. Before lambasting them further go first look in the mirror and ask what you would be demanding no matter where you live.
Educate yourself. Go back to the FEMA website rather than reading and commenting on these news websites and read about what to do before a disaster. Inventory your household goods. Take pictures of your household goods. Keep multiple copies in several locations. Scan important documents, keep several copies, etc. Read your policy and make sure you understand what is in it. The front declaration page is the singularly most important one. (Note that fireproof safes are not really fireproof if your house is engulfed and they can be floated away never to be found.)
Good luck.
These stories started cropping up within days of the disaster - yet the left wing media didn't report it - too busy covering Barry's back-side.
The libbies are getting what they deserve. Too bad we all have to pay the bill.
ldo, how about:
"Hi, I am from the government and here to regulate your habits and your everyday life."
Uhhhhh, sounds just like a Conservative.
Anyway, "progressive" means: "someone who has modern ideas about how things should be done".
Where's the outrage from the progressive left on the lack of Sandy clean-up? If it was a Republican in office you would never hear the end of the progressives caustic rhetoric. I can't imagine you support this debacle.
Yeah, dr,
Like there is no "rights caustic rhetoric" about everything what Obama Administration does or doesn't do.
Oh, you changed "lefts" to "progressives". Well, check above the meaning of the word...
Rafal, this quote, from one of your own, outlines a "modern progressive" mantra.
The latest Pew Research shows that liberals are less tolerant of opposing points of view.The study finds liberals are far more sensitive about criticism. Liberal columnist Kirsten Powers noted that “Liberals, because they are used to controlling all the media, pretty much academia, that for them, when they hear
things that don’t jibe with what they want to hear, it’s very disconcerting and unsettling to them.” K. Powers explained that after getting out of her own “Democratic bubble,” she noticed that conservatives tend to be more open to hearing opposing viewpoints than liberals."
Maybe you need to re-evaluate your bad-self and your party.
these people are gonna cost taxpayers billions of $$. they should ask their private home insurance companies to pick up their $#*^. It's what you pay them for, right?
Curious how this FEMA article got DROPPED from the MSNBC nbcnews_com website after less than three hours on the homepage.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/24/16644140-fema-leaves-many-sandy-victims-languishing?threadId=3652625&commentId=73659776#c73659776
Call from Jay Carney/White House Chief of Staff?? Too truthful? Obliterates the Marxist narrative that the President cares about white people, at least before the election? How much did those multiple Hawaii vacations cost while Sandy Victims are left out in the cold? <***ZAPP***>
What FEMA article? Who is Sandy? I really DO love Big Brother...
I'm sure there are plenty of can do Americans doing just fine and neighbors helping neighbors. I'm not in the business of blaming victims, pointing fingers, or wanting to judge who has more need... but I also know that sometimes there are people who are abrasive or entitled or unpleasant and and do not engender that feeling of charity in others.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be helped. But in my own church family I've seen cranky difficult poor attitude people bemoan their situation so often and loudly that people with greater need will quietly defer to them yet get what they need done far faster because they are pleasant to be around make you feel good for helping.
Not saying any specific situation matches, but when thousands of people need help, there *is* going to be those individuals who see their own needs above others and will loudly find fault with decisions that do not match their opinion.
The Sandy Relief package is for $60 billion.
This equates with over $1.2 million people getting $50,000 EACH!
Of course only half is going to Sandy victims and 25% of that will end up being lost to waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.
Yep, more government is what we need, they'll turn a glass of spilled milk into a 6 month cluster f**k!
Kim - It's possible that being that close to the coast the insurance is either not available or too expensive.
In the Midwest for instance, damage from storms is indeed covered, but at a higher rate and with a very high deductible.
That being said - if an insurance company won't cover something like storms at all it's likely God's way of saying "It's not a good idea to build here".
Rafal -
You can call the Democrats/Lberals "progressive" all you want - just as you can call spoiled milk a rose. It won't improve the smell and it will certainly make you gag.
Mixed emotions on this..Yes some of these people have real problems. But, as others pointed out an electrician who can't get busy to install wiring in his own home has no room to gripe! Get to work, don't ask for what you don't deserve. FEMA is not your insurance company, nor was it ever supposed to be. When we had huge tornados in Alabama in April of 2011 FEMA brought supplies and provided funds for debris removal, some got trailers where it was possible, offered low interest loans for those who needed them. FEMA was here promptly and did a good job all in all.
We all have to be able to take care of ourselves for a reasonable period of time and not sit around and whine. EVERY home owner should review their insurance policy to make sure you have total replacement of the home and of all contents. If your home is unliveable you will need rent coverage too. In other words, a gold plated ploicy. Investigate who you buy your policy from. Some companies are better than others when it comes to paying claims, check them out on the internet. Those who had little or undervalued insurance policies have only themselves to blame when they come up short. Especially those who had good jobs..like the electrican and his professor wife. Believe me, it will take more money than you think to replace everything you own.
Lastly, if Congress won't fund FEMA enough to cover reconstruction, you can't blame the president or the governors. This shouldn't be a political matter, but congess has made everything so, dumping it in with the budget arguement.
Insurance = getting your house fixed. No insurance = like gambling when you lose.
The article is misleading. "Rapid Repairs" is not a FEMA program. The FEMA program is STEP and local governments are behind getting this set up. Rapid Repairs was created by NYC to assist in getting eligibility for STEP funds. The article does a horrible job of explaining things. FEMA has even had to put up web information because of the rumors floating around.
You can say that $250K is a lot for a trailer and it is but it's more than just buying a trailer. All the logistics add up. You need a place to put them. (land lease, temporary roads, etc.) Then there are the necessary utilities. (Power, water, sewage, etc) Shipping, set up and all these things cost a lot of money. In a city environment, you'd end up with a lot of small trailer communities, all requiring the requisite infrastructure. There isn't a lot of wide open space available. The more times you have to repeat this, the higher the per unit cost is. We're not talking about pop-up campers in somebody's yard, assuming there would be room.
You also have to consider that it is Winter. You can't just lay utility pipes on the ground as water and sewage would freeze up. If you go with electric heat, that makes the electrical infrastructure necessary at least 3 times as big. Natural gas means running lines underground and you need a big enough source to tap in to. Propane means tanks. Pretty good sized tanks too. A small 100lb tank will last about 3 days or less, in the average sized trailer, depending on how cold it is. The biggest standard vertical tank is a 420lb unit, which is about 100 gallons, is good for maybe two weeks. And then you have to get these filled regularly. Sewage too might very well be an underground holding tank that needs to be pumped out regularly.
You can figure that the period you need them will be at least for six months if not a year. Add all that up and $250,000 may not be so far out of line.
That is why they see the "shelter in place" approach as cheaper, but in order to do this, you need to get the basic utilities. Water and sewage is likely intact, but the electrical system will likely need considerable work if there was any flooding. Furnaces and water heaters will likely need to be replaced. $10,000 per property is probably a fair estimate with some more and some less. But even at $20,000, it's far cheaper. A big part of the problem though will be having enough qualified contractors to meet the demand. Even getting so many furnaces and water heaters as well as electrical parts will pretty quickly become an issue. It is not surprising that some people are still waiting. Plus some situations might be a fairly quick fix while others could take days or more. Available contractors and supplies will be a big issue.
But coordinating all this for many tens of thousands is no easy task. This is in fact a problem with local governments not adequately coordinating well with FEMA. FEMA is providing funds and a variety of assistance, but local governments are playing the big coordinating role.
Some inetersting reading that explains some of this a bit better.
www.fema.gov/hurricane-sandy-rumor-control
www.nyc.gov/html/misc/html/2012/rapid_repairs.html
www.fema.gov/news-release/2012/12/12/fema-awards-first-sheltering-and-temporary-essential-power-program-grants
"This is Roseanne Roseannadanna. It's all George W. Bush's fault because he should have seen this coming and gotten prepared for...
"What? George W. Bush isn't President anymore? Oh. NEVER MIND."
"Their insurance will cover just one-third of the $300,000 cost to rebuild"
If you didn't carry enough insurance WHY is that the taxpayers problem???
If you didn't carry FLOOD insurance WHY is that the taxpayers problem???
I'm sick of hearing that these people are OWED something...anything...
If you KNOW your home is worth $300,000 then INSURE it for $300,000. If not, then don't ask people that are smart enough to NOT live in a flood area to pick up the tab for your stupidity.
Mike Kelley.....
Mr. Obama and his surrogates have used "It is Bush's fault" to the max. It is now "the Republicans" or "The Tea Partys" fault.....with emphasis on the Republicans.
Heck, even the Progressive media is now chiding Mr. Obama to demolish any political party which goes against his Progressive agenda.
Progressives are like that: "My way or the highway" attitude.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
colormepurple......
I agree. And what about those folks who purchased a home they couldn't afford, are now facing foreclosure, and Mr. Obama has used HAMP #4 so far and more to come at TAXPAYERS EXPENSE.
Jeanne,
You are right about insurance and I'm sure a lot of people think they were covered only to find out there was some exclusions in the fine print.
I will also add, this isn't Alabama. Sandy victims are in the middle of Winter. If you don't have power and heat, you're not going to stay in your home. If you can't stay nearby, you'll likely even have trouble getting to your job assuming your employer is back up and running. A lot of these displaced people are having to live 100 miles away or more. The nature of these neighborhoods are different too from what I remember of the Alabama tornadoes. Not a lot of room for trailers. Maybe for some, but probably not the majority.
Most of these people are probably looking at about $10,000 to get their electricity and heat back up and working. Not everybody has that much cash laying around and if they did, they probably already burned through a lot of it in the first couple weeks with temporary housing.
We're talking about a huge number of people too. The population density is far higher than what you are used too.
There is a lot of misinformation and assumptions. FEMA is not just handing out free money. Read my previous post and check out the links.
I'll just add,that as traumatic as your situation in Alabama was, this is a far different set of circumstances.
For those complaining that the electrician did not do his own repairs, please be aware that in some communities, you are not allowed to do your own electrical or plumbing work, even if you work in that field. That may be why he has to wait for someone to come in to do his repairs.
Those saying you should have flood insurance - are you aware that the only place you can get flood insurance is through the government? That is what one of my relatives affected by the storm told me. You cannot get it through your regular insurance company. Also, if you live in one of these areas near the water, you must have flood insurance in order to obtain a mortgage. However, the insurance companies look for every loophole they can find in order not to cover or reduce the amount of the payout they give you (even if you are insured for the full value of your home, Colormepurple and others).
Now for a history lesson. To those that say why live near the water? All of the early cities in this country and in other countries were built on the waterfronts. That is because in the early days, it was the only way to receive goods and ship other goods out. (basic economics) As to why people live near the water now - some people find the crash of the waves soothing. Not all of these homes are summer residences. Many people live in these homes year round.
Chuck, no bank is going to give you a mortgage w/o property insurance. And in potential flood areas, flood insurance is also required.
It's not that it's a bad idea to build there,,but you CAN NOT build there without flood insurance. Not with a lien on the property.
There were people who owned their summer cottages or homes outright, with no mortgage, and as such flood insurance would not be required. Those are the people who are complaining now about No government intervention. They are the ones with their hands out, as their regular insurance (if they even have it) isn't going to cover flood damage.
Of course there are people whose homes were more inland and as such not considered a "Flood" area and so flood insurance wasn't required. Those are the people the Feds should be taking care of. They did all the right things, but it just happened.
As for you blaming the Republicans for it all, both houses signed unanimously after the storm to help the victims, and when more was needed the Liberals wanted to add more to it for their own purposes, which was what the republicans were arguing against.
If Bush were just re-elected the Liberals would be screaming from the rooftops. But since it's Obozo, they are all just talking about how wonderful his Coronation was.
Perhaps Rapid Repairs is avoiding Christina Fischer because she is harassing them?
Also, why does she think that she deserves special treatment because she has children with disabilities? Don't ordinary, non-disabled kids get cold and need a pot for peeing? There is nothing about her kids' disabilities that requires them to need anything special, for example, a refrigerator for storing meds, etc. They can wait their turn behind other kids.
FEMA needs to get Chrisitna (pic above w/ kids) some new jeans- STAT!
This cannot be happening with Obama at the wheel.......
If a road or a school is destroyed it is the government's responsibility to repair it. If your home is destroyed, it is your responsibility.
I feel for these "victims" but ctviking hit the nail on the head.
True statement ctviking. I feel sorry for the people but it was their choice to live by the ocean despite the risk involved. DIDN'T ANY OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE????????? If not it is not the taxpayers responsibility to pay for their poor judgement. Difficult to understand how people can be so stupid. I have on my home and the bank requires until paid off.
Homeowners insurances does not cover flood.
You have to have a special flood insurance. FEMA is the backer of the flood insurance program, so even flood insurance is the government's responsibility
Special flood insurance is only required by loans if you live in high flood hazard areas. Sandy pushed water into low flood hazard areas that had never had flooding before, causing many people who didn't have flood insurance to flood.
And even if you have it, in a disaster this large, adjusters will usually take 30-45 days just to finish inspecting. Your loss is one in a pile. They're not going to have time to call the homeowners and hold their hands if they expected also to write estimates as soon as possible.
Also, people need to realize that it will take a year to recover to normalcy.
And someone will have to be the last claim. You can only pray and work to make sure you're not the last claim. But someone is going to be last.
If it is a city road its the cities responsibility, county road the counties, state roads the states interstate then your in Federal area. Schools are always the realm of city, county, or state. Homes are indeed owners in the form of insurance policies. Where the Federal comes in is when an emergency is declared and assumes responsibility for providing basic services and temporary assistance in the form of emergency temporary shelter from elements and emergency services, that has been expected to include low interest loans, etc..
When you live in a welfare nanny-state that mutates to expecting big brother to "fix" all lifes bumps and hardship. The problem is how do you pay for big-brother? When the Federal government is to the point where it borrows money to make the interest payment on the money it has already borrowed where is the money going to come from? When confiscating the entire wealth of the Forbes 400 richest American citizens would amount to less than operating costs for 1 year, not pay down any debt just not borrow for awhile, where is the money going to come from? When this great new tax increase win on "rich" citizens will only raise $3.2 billion a year and the Fedral government borrows that amount every 17 hours, where is the money going to come from? When 75% of the tax base is the source of less than 13% of revenue and 47% of that group 0% revenue, where is the money going to come from?
Tell you what Clinton and Democratic Party Agenda, we tried out your "new economy" and to tell you the truth ..... I kind of prefer the old one. You remember the one where there was work for any citizen that was willing to work, that still had a massive middle-class tax base and a small number of multi-generational welfare element that would never work no matter what opportunities were available and every civilization has, minimal tax rates to fund legitimate Federal government functions, a school sytem that concentrated on education and not social engineering? The one where I was still a member of that middle-class because I went to school to learn and sacrificed to further my knowledge and still had a home, property, retirement savings and savings in the bank, when citizens had some hope for the future and the future for their children and the Federal government had money for national emergencies?
As for the flood insurance, Journal Journal is correct. And as for building in the Rockaways, people have been living there since the 1690s and having floodwaters destroy your home has never been a problem before, why would one think it should be a risk now? ( Especially with everyone saying that global warming is BS and any freak weather we may be having now is just an aberration.)
Dennis your rant had very little to do with Hurricane Sandy.
No insurance covers everything, but every flood, people are shocked when the adjuster tells them, "That's not covered." They're shocked when that weathered crack with the spiderwebs in it won't be fixed because it was there pre-flood. They're horrified because all those things that were paid for when Irene came and flooded their house last year, won't be paid for in Sandy because they didn't replace it or they don't have documentation to show that they did. (There's a clause that says prior flood damage claimed has to be completed."
It's not an issue of money, or schooling or the economy that causes these people to lose their minds. It's the fact that patience is running short when the temperature falls below 20 degrees and someone doesn't have a boiler yet. Or they see everyone that has their house fixed and they're the ONLY ones on the block who doesn't have one.
That's when people start screaming and crying to the media that no one cares. Well, when they have their money they'll go away. And they will get it. It's just a matter of time.
Journal .... You maybe want to go back and see why things are not progressing as fast and why people are crying about how slow the government is. Yes it is now a matter of the economy when you cry for big-brother to fix all lifes problems. There is nothing that will not be insured if you are willing to pay the costs, that is what insurance is in the business of. If you are unwilling to pay why would you expect the government to pick up the pieces? Where is the money going to come from?
No private insurance covers flood without FEMA backing. Even when you buy flood insurance through State Farm, Fidelity, or Nationwide, the government is the one fitting the bill. The agents just sell the policies.
And they are policies. All policies have restrictions and exclusions.
Why don't they cover flood without government backing? lol Because they'd go out of business... kinda like how FEMA is in the red now.
Journal ... well that explains everything. If the Federal government guarantees the policy there just is no funds left to make good on the policy anymore. Heck the welfare state cant even make an interest payment on past loan.
In fact, Insurance companies have pulled their business out of some areas completely...that's a pretty tough exclusion. The government will have to cover all those areas 100%.
Yeah it's tough. The government just keeps getting farther and farther behind when it comes to disasters. And these are becoming yearly headline - marches. If we don't catch a break from mother nature soon, it's gonna fall to pieces and then we'll really have an apocolypse on our hands.
Why are the homeowners whining when they are getting "free" help? Why is the engineer in the first pic whining about someone else cleaning up his mess? Him and his 3 sons couldn't have carried the junk out? Why hasn't the electrician made the slightest effort to work on his own home and document the work for reimbursement? Lots of lazy people whining, even though they are getting things for free, it's not happening fast enough to suit them?
People who live in areas prone to weather damage, should be thankful they are getting things done for free instead of whining about the time it takes. How ungrateful can people be? With 4 young kids to tend to, after I had a fire that destroyed a big portion of my house, I worked till dark almost every night after work on doing what I could to clean up and rebuild my house. These people are getting free help, doing little to nothing to help themselves, and are still whining that others are taking too long to help them out. Little wonder this country is going all to hell with the attitudes that these people are showing.
The news media needs to start getting some journalists that either know what they are doing, or else how to do some fact checking. They stated the picture of the dozers, dump trucks, and excavators is a picture of "cranes" working to move sand? The writer and editor should both be made to go back to school until they learn to at least look at one book that tells them what different equipment, vehicles, building, etc. looks like before using it in a story. They are as lazy as the two families whining that someone else is doing work fast enough that they should be doing for themselves.
Your comment is soo true but where were these types of comments when Katrina hit. No one dare say this because of the make up of the population that was involved. They would rather attack the President then put the responsibility where it belongs. You notice the hush in the main stream media since the former New Orleans Mayor was indicted for corruption. The silence is deafening.
You are so right Butch.... Where is the outrage on both the president and Mayor Nagin. If you all remember, Nagin all but personally hanged Bush and blaimed his incompetency on him. Afterall, it was Bush that didn't move those school busses to help evacuate.... Katrina has aid within 7 days.. and people were outrage and crying racism for lack of response. in 7 weeks.. nothing for Sandy, no outrage and no pointing to empty promises and our incompetent president. I know its government fault.... but if you are to blame Bush, then you have to blame Obama and can't be shifting it to congress or FEMA.... all you hypocrits. Bush must be saying an extra prayer at church.... Nagin is finally getting what is due to him... jail and he can't blame Bush for that.
Excellent points, Butch!!! It just goes to show you how well and alive the double standards are in this country. Unfortunately, many people consider these double standards as fair and that equality for all has finally arrived. Until Americans as a people come together, acknowledge their different biases, but in spite of them say they are willing to work together things are only going to get worse. Further, pretending that only certain people are racist, biased, homophobic is not addressing the problem. We have come a long way, but it seems as if we are regressing. Whenever such a double standard comes to surface, e.g. a President with one letter behind his name does exactly what the President with a different letter behind his name is given a pass, there is a serious, serious problem! If a person is unfair, wrong or has lied call him out regardless of whether he is a member of your party or not. The truth will set you free!!! God bless America!!!!!
How many times have this area been flooded??
WHY do we pay for those people's property???
Yep, the silence of the liberal media is deafening. Just as hypocritical is when the libs yell and scream about Fox news being biased.
But then, no big surprise. Liberals have always been walking bundles of contradiction.
The difference here is that FEMA can't do anything without money, and if you recall, the disaster relief funds for the Sandy victims were passed quickly by the Senate, but languished for months in the House of Representatives because one particular party was too busy with OTHER things.
Jimbo I dont know where you been but the bill has been passed so where did the money go?
Not true. I see commercials for flood insurance all the time??
I live in a condo and I pay HOA which covers flood insurance for the entire complex. I pay home insurance for things that happen INSIDE my home (fire, theft, etc)
Privately owned insurance FIRMs sell policies to people under their own names, through the National Flood Insurance Program. This allows more policies to be sold to homeowners and allows claims to be made in a faster manner than if the government had to do everything.
You can buy policies direct from NFIP from companies like State Farm. Other companies like Nationwide and Travelers, use an exchange to help shoulder the risk burden and lower prices for consumers. It's the only part of the program that works pretty well, if you ask me.
But it is true. Even though it has the insurance company's label on it, at the in of the day, the government makes the policy, audits the claims and all appeals for denials under the policy go to FEMA. Because it's their money.
Jimbo
The reason the House didn't pass the bill so quickly is because it was loaded with pork from the democrats.
Spending bills originate on the house, Beohner did the fiscal cliff theing and promised to do do Sandy relief as soon as the cliff deal was done. When the cliff deal was done, instead of taking up Katrina relief the speaker adjourned the House. What a liar he is!
Common sense isn't so common anymore. I suppose many didn't get the help they needed because it isn't Hollywood, CA where people with money and "pull" live. No Senators or Congressmen living at the beach! No famous people living at the beach in NJ! It all sickens me the amount of money donated and still the masses need help. Sure, they shouldn't have built close to the beach and many insurers won't cover these homes anymore and if they do, the premiums are close to double the average homeowner. I would be sure to have it though, and forego the pizzas and movies and the extras in life to protect my home. People don't think! Many people still think that their homeowners insurance covers flood too! All the devastation we have seen and heard of and people still aren't educated about this fact. It amazes me. I feel for those who still need help. They built, they lost, it is what it is and they still need the help.
You need to look at a map of the US. That would include probably 30 States.
Incorrect. The problem is it is not Louisianawith a population base of a visible minority majority flavor of the month that is multi-generational welfare reliant slaves to the "state". You know ... the Democratic Party voting bloc.
Another point. Many folks will get some form of insurance payout. The ones with flood insurance should see the funds flowing soon since Congress finally at least funded that part last week. If folks have a complaint then they should go to their Congress persons office (or write) since it was the House GOP that refused to do anything immediately after Sandy. BTW....those pork items everyone is yelling about were actually tied to other disasters that have occurred over the last 12 months. Some 1000 homes over many states and regions have been burned to the ground. These funds were not for those homes but to protect watersheds when the snows melts, the rain comes, etc.
Anyway, many of these people are going to have to take out low interest loans (available via FEMA but through the SBA) to pay for the repair work because almost all insurance policies have a deductible when the home is not a total loss. It is the cost trade off of what we can afford on a monthly basis, what we can save up and what we can manage afterwards. If your deductible is $100K how many people have that just hanging around. And that is why there is the low interest loans through SBA available. Not free. But cheaper. And easier to get in a disaster zone. Still have to pay it back though.
FEMA is generally very quick to do their payouts. That's why after Katrina, people were getting their checks after 10 days. Two weeks after Hurricane Charley. But.............it takes a Senate and Congress to turn loose of the money and actually VOTE. FEMA can not write checks out of an account that has no funds.
Yes sir.. Carol O... FEMA works sooo much better under Obama.
You speak of the "free" money as if it were your own. You are a true liberal. FREE MONEY!!! Thanks to libs like you the government is a source of free money and Obama pushes that even further. Before libs screwed up the country your neighbors, family and friends would help you. You either had the money/insurance and people to back you up or you lived with the fact that a natural disaster just took out your home and you better have a plan B. Now it's "where's my free money from the government!?! A storm took out my house and the government must pay!!".
The House HAS no money to cut lose of. The Nanny-State has wracked up a bill it is impossible to ever pay down, there is not enough wealth left in the nation to even come close if it was all dedicated for that purpose for hundreds of years. That is the historic inevitable end result of the collapse of every Republic in recorded history ... that and total collapse and fragmentation, tyranny, oppression.
Help from the government is evil socialism until you need it yourself. I honestly hope you can get when you need it in the future. Don't think it can't happen.
The difference here is that FEMA can't do anything without money, and if you recall, the disaster relief funds for the Sandy victims were passed quickly by the Senate, but languished for months in the House of Representatives because one particular party was too busy with OTHER things.
WTF you talking about the bill has been passed and signed into law already. Where the hell did all that money go?
Jimbo - You can bet your a$$ that if Israel required some funds, our Congress would immediately leap into action. This year we sent them an extra billion for their "Iron Dome" missile defense system. Of course, they get their annual 3 billion dollars like clockwork. We also pay for the interest and fees for the 10 billion dollars in loan guarantees.
Israel needs the money so they can purchase F35s, expand their settlements and build more walls, while our US citizens freeze in the cold.
The people of New Jersey and New York will just have to wait.
Israel's economy is
thriving in a global economic meltdown. The Jewish state's 2009-12 economic
growth of 14.7 percent leads all the advanced countries of the world, followed
by Australia with 10.7; Canada 4.8; United States 3.2; Germany 2.7; France 0.3;
European Union minus 1.5 percent.
Ralph and jimbo do you guys not keep up with current affairs. Obama has singed that bill into law if they dont have the money then its probaly gone to repair the smithsonian or help some fishiers out in Alaska and elsewhere in the country. I think thats one of the reasons the repuks wanted to look at but they were forced to pass it and now the money is gone.
I know. I know. I know.
It's Bush's fault.
I REALLY want to say the opposite of what Kanye said during Katrina, but I will refrain...
Because you know it's ridiculous lol
VikVega, EXACTLY. Can you imagine how the Obama pandering, disgusting, a** licking media would be freaking out every day if Bush was still in office?? I still keep saying, Vladimir Putin would LOVE to have a media like ours!!!! I feel sorry for any sane (conservative) person that may live there and that is going through this, but the hell with the rest of them. How's that Obama working out for you libs????
It's climate change stupid! And how did Cheney's energy policy address that? Why did Reagan move away from alternative energy? Why don't you idiots wake up?
Climate change? I thought it was hurricane that caused the all the flooding. (And yes, I am baiting you...)
Chris..are you that f....ing naaive? Stay on the subject...it's about FEMA you fool! Speaking of 'idiots', look in the mirror!
Well Vik Vega, we (America) sure would have a lot more money to spend in America if Bush had not started 2 wars of choice, which will cost over 6 trillion dollars. The war in Iraq alone, is estimated to end up costing in excess of 3.5 to 4.5 trillion dollars.
Before you go blaming Democrats for the war, remember the war was Bush's baby from the get go. He was the one on television making grave statements about mobile biological weapons labs, aluminum tubes and documents ( forged) from Niger. It was all bull, which was pushed by the media, the neocons in right wing think tanks and the Mossad. Our intelligence agencies never believed half of the claims made by the politicians. Here are some stats and claims made by neocons in the Bush administration. They were the ones pushing for war and they all worked for Bush.
Zionist warmongers like Ken Adelman and the Zionist Washington Post pushed the war in
an editorial titled, “Cakewalk in Iraq.” Jewish supremacists Richard Perle and
Paul Wolfowitz told you that Iraq would “Welcome us as liberators.” Iraq became
the longest war in American history. Here is a report from USA Today: “Pentagon
officials estimated for the first time Wednesday that up to 360,000 Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans may have suffered traumatic brain injuries.” Now that’s
not counting tens of thousands who have suffered maiming, amputations, or death
in this war based on lies.
Ralphy why in the hell did the dems in congress agree with Bush? Geese all they had to do was vote against it. So Im sorry but I have to blame everybody who actualty voted for the war. You just have to call it like it is the dems voted for it as well.
Ralph, let me know if you want some links to youtube videos of prominent Democrats supporting going after Saddam. I even have a few of some before your much hated Bush ever took office.
Hurricanes are caused by Climate change? That's a new one to me.
hs - I have seen list, thank you. Do you think those people on the list got their information in a vacuum? They didn't get it from our intelligence agencies, because they didn't believe half the claims.
Furthermore, Democrats voted to give Bush "the authorization" to go to war.They didn't actually vote for a war. I guess they assumed Bush had all the evidence needed. In reality, Bush was just listening to neo conservative idealogues, who had a vision to use American power to change the ME, that was all wrong.
The Iraq war was planned and sold by Paul wolfowitz, who claimed it would last a month and cost about 50 billion dollars. It would be a "Cakewalk".
They got it from their AIPAC lobbyist, the Zionist media, the Mossad and the right wing think tanks, such as PNAC. PNAC wrote Clinton a letter in 1998, called the PNAC Letter, which was signed by many of the neocons which would later serve in the Bush administration, claiming Iraq had WMD and advising Clinton to force Saddam from office using American military power.
Retired Israeli General, Shlomo Brom, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that "Israeli
intelligence was a full partner with the United States and Britain in
developing a false picture of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
capability."
He said Israeli intelligence "badly overestimated the Iraqi threat to Israel
and reinforced the American and British belief that the weapons existed."
Brom said the Israeli assessment may have been influenced by politics. "Israel
has no reason to regret the outcome of the war in Iraq," he wrote, noting
Saddam was an implacable enemy.
Brom ended his 25-year military career in 1998. Career officers in Israel
traditionally maintain close ties with military colleagues after their
retirement.
Zionist
warmongers like Ken Adelman and the Zionist Washington Post pushed the war in
an editorial titled, “Cakewalk in Iraq.” Jewish supremacists Richard Perle and
Paul Wolfowitz told you that Iraq would “Welcome us as liberators.” Iraq became
the longest war in American history. Here is a report from USA Today: “Pentagon
officials estimated for the first time Wednesday that up to 360,000 Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans may have suffered traumatic brain injuries.” Now that’s
not counting tens of thousands who have suffered maiming, amputations, or death
in this war based on lies.
Got any more questions, hs? I have the answers. Why don't you look up PNAC Letter and see what it said and who signed the letter?
Go to call bull chit on that one the dems had the same info and still voted for the war.
Instead of playing on the beach and waiting for someone else to do your work, get some tools and a shovel and fix your own problem. Nobody needs to live next to the ocean and if you decide to, then pay for issues like these yourself.
duplicate
sounds typical of government funded entities. they are just following protocol. work little for big money. have more work left. get more money. that also parallels what occured with non-goverment union entities and even workers, whose ineffectiveness inevitably have left them dissolved and without future union jobs for their descendants (despite their alleged initial, sincere motives).
Man thats gotta be really annoying, Whats going on over there at FEMA?
www.Anon-Dis.tk
Where is the outrage at Mr. Obama like there was at Bush during Katrina?
Oh I know, don't speak ill of the chosen one. What a joke!!
Carl, Do you remember when this storm hit and obama was on TV telling these people don't worry this isn't new jersey's problem this is a national problem? WELL THE CAMERA'S ARE GONE. how many promises have you seen this guy make when the camera's were rolling then you never hear another thing about it?
To be more precise, the promises were made, the cameras are gone,.... and he got re-elected.
He no longer gives a ratz arse about the 'peasants'.
Gas up Air Force One........there's warmer spots on the globe to take the family for a visit.
Sorry life sucks for you guys. Maybe if you weren't so racist things would look up. Seek Jesus.
YOU are the ONLY one that mentioned race.
Try a different 'card', or is that the only one you have in your deck?
Travel trailer. "They also carry a hefty price tag of $250,000, and take months to set up, they said." FEMA you got screwed if you paid $250,000 for a travel trailer or permanent mobile home.
Yeah?? What's your point?
NO entity in government has any concept how to get the most bang for the buck. All they can think about is spending every penny they've been alloted and then complian about how much more they need.
That PC you or I could get for 400 or 500 bucks at a big box store? The government will spend about 5,000 for the same thing.
Like this is big news! When my nieces whole city flooded out, it was wait, wait and guess what, she is still waiting 2 years and counting. So big deal.
Those people have not even seen a year yet. And my nieces city DID NOT get the big bucks from Congress like Sandy people did even though 90% of their city was affected.
So suck it up people and do more for yourself instead of waiting for the rest of the country run to your rescue.
It seems alot of people think no one should build near the water or if they do they should have insurance. That might be true but what disturbs me is we send millions and billions all over the world and this is OUR tax money but there's no help for our own people? SHAMEFUL!!!
Allen we have sent money I think somebody may have took or it went to Alaska and other places in the country. Obama has already signed the billions thats went to these people. Where the hell that money is now I have no idea?
If you want to interview a family...interview my aunt, uncle, grown son, and pregnant daughter that moved in with us from New Jersey. They lost everything, including their vehicles. Their insurance company, the State of New Jersey, and FEMA gave them $4000 TOTAL for all of their possessions. He had $25K in tools, furniture heirlooms, baby picture of their kids, and they lived in their upstairs room together with no heat, and no electricity until they gave up on everyone 3 weeks ago and moved in with us in NC. We have a small home, and are by NO MEANS well off. Sure wish the powers that be would get off their butts and do something...
If they settled for $4000, they have more problems than I can address here.
Geese talk about being under insured hell I got my house and belongings covered on my insurance. Of course I know an elderly couple in my home town who had a nice house. They decide to gamble and not have insurance to save the money that it would cost for insurance. Well their house actualy burnt down to ground and they to have moved in with relatives. It better to rent if you dont want to pay for insurance because if you take that gamble and lose you are screwed.
Great comments so far, But...aren't these quarter-million dollar houses and up??? I know shoreline property isnt cheap so why handout my tax dollars to people who should have insurance? Roads are being repaired along with utilities, but the "I'm a victim" dont fly when its natural causes, and you should have been prepared (insurance).
Home prices are relative. Just because they cost $250,000 doesn't mean they're worth that. It's only what the market will bear.
For example, what would cost $800,000 + in the Northern VA area will cost less than $300,000 in the San Antonio TX area.
Oh, and YOU'RE paying because the government decided years ago to get into the insurance business. When the National Flood Insurance program started, they got into the money losing business that private business (the insurance industry) felt was too risky.
FEMA is a great agency doing what it can with what it's been giving. People don't want to pay the taxes that hire employees/contractors to do the jobs, or to purchase what's need to get it done, but they're quick to bitch when it's not done fast enough.
People build these houses on the beach or near the ocean and when something like this happens they expect the rest of us to bail them out. I dropped insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate because their rates always go up when they pay for these peoples houses. I don't live at the beach and shouldn't have to pay for them to! If I had to vote on it I'd leave them to fix it themselves.
Mike you DO vote on it. You ELECT the people in Congress that start these programs.
Oh, except for any requirement a mortgage holder places on you, there is no legal requirement to have insurance. That's YOUR choice and if you lose everything, such is life. Insurance is nothing but a big pool of people hoping they never need what they're buying.
Name a government run agency that does work... There are none. When one is even half decent they tap into it for things it wasn't meant to do (social security anyone?). So what does our fearless leader do? He pushes a government run healthcare down our throats. Yeah, that's what we needed, another failed government run program!!!
This is why the federal government needs to be cut, not made larger. If you are going to give money, let the state's spend it and not the federal government. The federal government is the most inefficient and worse spenders of our tax money. PERIOD!!!
As you know, America is the first country to send aid when other
countries are in trouble.
It is highly appropriate that we now send THANKS to all of the
countries that reciprocated for our help with their disasters,
misgivings, social turmoil, & poverty by sending to the United States
of America monetary and physical help when Sandy ravaged our East
Coast leaving dead, homelessness, and pure disaster.
Listed below are all the Countries and World Organizations that are
giving us gracious assistance. Please assist in thanking these
entities by passing on this email so people all over America can join
in and THANK our neighbors, to whom we have invested BILLIONS!!!!
First on the list is…
1.
Finally, at least an article saying what a crap job that FEMA is doing. Should have printed months ago. Bush took a hit for the hurricane after a week. obama was on tv saying we will not forget you. Well, where is the criticism of obama? Where is the outrage from the democrats? The democrats don't give a rat's a** about the middle class. If they did, you would not still have thousands of people living the way they are. The democrats have pulled some of the largest lies on the American people. They only care about the lower income and that is only because of votes. The free crap the dems give out, the more votes they get.
If the Democratic Party cared about what used to be a middle-class there would still BE one.
President Bush was ridiculed, mocked, slammed, etc after Katrina....
Now it is FEMA, not President Obama...just FEMA
WHAT A DOUBLE STANDARD
why are they surprised? did they not pay any attention to NewOrleans as that city STILL hasn't completely recovered. it is up to the citizen to discover what is'out there' Everyone voted for less.....now work with it.....I too am in a storm torn community & we are re-building
The Federal government did its function ... it provided emergency assistance when it was needed. It even went beyond the legitimate function of a Federal government and made low interest federal loans available. The rebuilding is the responsibility of local government and individual after that point.
Looks like the tide is coming in...
Hey people, the elections is over. Your catastrophe was well used by Obama to retain his crown. Now? He'll get to you right after he fixes the deficit, gets a budget, plays some more golf and takes a couple more vacations on the taxpayer dime. Until then, just hang in there.
COPE.!!
Where is the Bush lamblasting regressive liberal MSM over this one? Hell, even the current two time president railed the last two time president over Katrina.
Whine...whine...whine...that's all that people in the northeast do. Home of the vampires...they suck the lifeblood of the country. From wall street to the beaches that should never have been built on...IDIOTS!!!
Is that like the people in New Orleans that built on property BELOW SEA LEVEL?
Or is that like the people that built along the flood plain of the Mississippi? Actually, if PEOPLE stopped trying to force the river to do things, yes, it would flood, but while much more wide spread, the overall destruction would be much less.
Dude it all done with Govt approval.
Those of you who are sneering at the people who got wiped out by Sandy---shut up! Do you have the capacity to put yourself in their shoes? Congress has been dragging it's feet on aid for the victims of Sandy. You're a bunch of cruel, immoral haters who can't get over losing the election. So you take it out by denying aid for victims of Sandy---because you've been brainwashed that the people who live in that part of country are a bunch of liberal Democrats and don't deserve to be helped. Well, if they weren't Democrats before Sandy, they are now. The Right has you believing that the biggest problem we have is the deficit. Imagine how much it could be reduced if we started taxing the rich. Ask yourself why on earth we are subsidising big oil to the tune of $4 billion a year? Let's look into who gets subsidies, and cut them out of the budget. You never hear the extremists on the right bringing up cutting subsidies as a way to reduce the deficit.
Even people with federal flood insurance could not get them to cut a check. When you have a federal goverment running in the hole at a rate of 1.5 trillion a year this is what you get. They rob from every agency to the bones until it needs the money then they tell congress they need to go to china and get some more. If you have ever bought a house it does not happen over nite.
The Federal government has just about at the end of borrowing from anyone. Currently its the rate of borrowing $3.2 billion every 17 hours just to keep from total collapse. How long before the "bank" decides thats the end and demand a little pay down on the principle? How long could you maintain your household when you have to borrow money just to make an interest payment on money you borrowed?
Dennis.... the answer is easy. They don't need to "borrow" anything. They just print more funny money.
One more thing where is the emergency funds that every state is suppose to have set up for things like sandy. Oh that is right as New Jersey is another Dem. controlled state that believe is you have five dollars left over every month it is a waste. So spend everything and blame someone else. That has been Obama's policy since he came into office. The sad thing is his followers suck up everything he says like he is the pope or something and cann't think for themselves
No NEED to think .... they are Democrats, thats the function of big-brother.