<p>Well if it’s only a few people objecting, the gov will prevail and this will be non-issue. Nice that most on LBI are open.</p>
<p>Last night we were talking about all kinds of fallout from Sandy.</p>
<p>What will be the impact on insurance companies? Remembering, of course, that flood damage is excluded from most home insurance policies.</p>
<p>So, all these people who lost everything…and no insurance coverage. How do they get back on their feet. Especially those without government flood insurance.</p>
<p>And the fallout ripples. </p>
<p>People without insurance who lost everything. I am assuming that–for those whose jobs are still there–that those who don’t have a house to go back to are going to need to rent a place. Where? Entire neighborhoods will never exist again. With so many families suddenly without housing, rentals that are available are going to go sky high.</p>
<p>All these people that are going to be paying rent are not going to have any cash left to pay on mortgages on houses that were destroyed, and not covered by flood insurance. </p>
<p>So the banks are also are going to take a big hit.</p>
<p>And people with credit taken out for things like destroyed furniture, and cars, etc…</p>
<p>Sandy is going to be a long and sad saga. We are going to be hearing about the fallout for years.</p>
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<p>The general guideline is that you should have enough water and food for three days as it takes the government a few days to mobilize resources in a large outage. The New York response has taken longer - 5 days to get Manhattan back online with power and there are still a lot of people without it.</p>
<p>We had this problem with Snowtober last year where it took quite a few days (certainly more than three) for people to start getting power back. Once the power crews got to a certain point, things got better for most very quickly. That was mainly power though - not that much in the way of destruction.</p>
<p>I just received an ad from AT&T in the mail for the new Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate.</p>
<p>Runners that missed the NYC marathon have been welcomed to the Manchester (NH) Marathon running today.</p>
<p>““We’re very, very happy to be able to provide for them and let them have a marathon this weekend,” said Jayne Cornell, president of the Manchester Marathon.”</p>
<p>“On Saturday, organizers were working to accommodate 500 additional runners who raced to Manchester after NYC canceled its marathon.”</p>
<p>Read more: [Canceled</a> NYC marathon brings runners to Manchester | Local News - WMUR Home](<a href=“http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Canceled-NYC-marathon-brings-runners-to-Manchester/-/9857858/17257838/-/q88t03z/-/index.html#ixzz2BGOixEC3]Canceled”>http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Canceled-NYC-marathon-brings-runners-to-Manchester/-/9857858/17257838/-/q88t03z/-/index.html#ixzz2BGOixEC3)</p>
<p>My D’s boyfriend’s brother is engaged and they were planning a wedding on LBI before Thanksgving. Obviously that’s not going to happen and it’s not a a tragedy, but it is sad because the bride as diagnosd with aggressive breast cancer despite being in her 20s.</p>
<p>Homes with mortgages have homeowners insurance, required by banks. I don’t believe they will need flood insurance to be covered with Sandy.</p>
<p>zoosermom–so, so sad. Hopefully they can still get married this fall or winter, even if not on LBI as planned.</p>
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<p>I’ll assume we won’t see people herded onto buses and shipped to Texas and the midwest as we did after Katrina. I doubt the northeast would stand for that. I don’t think we’ll hear the survivors called refugees either. </p>
<p>The barrier islands could be managed more like Ocracoke NC. Very limited development means its beauty has not been spoiled as the beaches along the Outer Banks, NJ, NY, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia have. Of course, there are still great challenges to keeping it and Hatteras accessible since Hwy 12 gets washed out periodically.</p>
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<p>Standard homeowner’s policies do not have flood insurance. You must get that through the federal government and it is heavily subsidized and is in the red. Banks may require flood insurance on barrier islands. It is cheap because it is a federal subsidy. My understanding is that most homeowners in the northeast do not have flood insurance.</p>
<p>cartera, my understanding was the same as yours. A lot of people will be owing mortgages on houses that no longer exist. There will be no insurance to cover the loss for most people. And all these people will need to find–and pay for-- a new place to live.</p>
<p>Flood insurance is hard to come by. I write wind and hail coverage, which covers most hurricane damage, but would not cover flood damage-- that is excluded and we do write a lot of business in NY and NJ and on barrier islands. There are ways you can get flood coverage, but I think most people take whatever insurance their agent gives them as long as they like the price and don’t think to consider whether or not the coverage is really adequate… and/or they don’t read their policies and aren’t aware of what is excluded.</p>
<p>I believe that when people accept federal assistance after a disaster, one of the requirements for rebuilding is getting federal flood insurance. I could be wrong. </p>
<p>You can’t make a claim on the flood insurance until you have had it for 30 days. That stops people from waiting to buy it based on a weather forecast.</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear that story Zoosermom; hope those brave kids find a beautiful place to marry. Destination wedding?</p>
<p>ON another note, I am interested to hear the bits of discussion here about living on barrier islands. While I am sad for the ppl who have lost their homes, especially those who lost their primary homes, I just don’t understand why ppl live on barrier islands, especially why they would have a primary home there. Or, for that matter, in marshlands. If I were king of the the treasury I would map the beach and marsh zones and buy out each homeowner (based on tax documentation w/ mortgage info or some such) and never allow ppl to build there again. I would do same in New Orleans places where homes were built in a shifting delta where the land was 10 feet under sea level. Why should ppl build there again? It makes no sense to me. </p>
<p>But I am still sad that ppl have to live through having their homes swept away. And families! Which I guess is why I would want to not allow rebuilding. But I am sure there will be many many many who disagree.</p>
<p>Yes and I also would probably carve away most of San Jose, CA since it is built on mud that will swallow homes during earthquakes. But I agree with the person above who noted that at least in tornado country the ground below is solid.</p>
<p>My understanding is that NJ homeowners will be able to claim against their homeowners insurance. They will not need to use their high hurricane deductible. There is a fine line between damage due to a storm vs flooding. When filing, I would just be careful with that. While there is a lot of political pressure, I would encourage people to file asap. I posted earlier on my personal filing experience few years back during another hurricane. The sprinkler went off in our store due to flooding of the basement. We didn’t have flood insurance, but we had a clause which said if the sprinkler should go off and there was water damage then we were covered. It was a fine print, but I pressed on that and received full coverage. Other people who tried to claim on that technicality later on wasn’t so lucky.</p>
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<p>most policies I’ve seen in the NE have a large hurricane deductible as well…but just saw this from CT :</p>
<p>Commissioner Leonardi notified the industry on Tuesday that based on data from the National Weather Service, Storm Sandy did not meet the statutory criteria and therefore “companies may not impose a hurricane deductible on Connecticut claims.”</p>
<p>Edit: Oldfort beat me to it</p>
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<p>Flood insurance and hurricane insurance cover two different things. High deductible hurricane insurance will not trigger in this storm because winds were not at sustained hurricane force.
This has nothing to do with whether there is coverage for flooding. Oldfort - you were lucky that your claim was covered and it may have been done so by the good graces of an agent and how he/she chose to write up the claim. Coverage can be arbitrary and some people get better treatment than others.</p>
<p>Maybe my insurance company (USAA) is unusual, but every time I renew my homeowner’s insurance I get several written reminders that it does NOT include flood insurance and very strong recommendations that I buy it. I do buy it through USAA, though it’s federal government insurance. I think USAA is being very prudent. With all the written notices, nobody is going to be able to convince a judge that they were unaware that the policy didn’t include flood coverage and that’s the insurance company’s fault. </p>
<p>I feel kind of nuts buying it as I live in a NYC apartment building several stories up in the air, but I figure better safe than sorry. (I have no damage from Sandy.) </p>
<p>It’s not all that cheap. It is only for the actual value of things destroyed–not replacement value like my homeowner’s is. </p>
<p>I think discontinuing the program would be nuts. First, some folks won’t buy or build on land if they can’t get flood insurance. In a weird way, the program discourages building in the most unsafe areas. Second, to some extent, the federal government is going to end up bailing out those who are hard hit by this storm–it may be by low cost loans rather than grants , but there will be a cost. The folks with flood insurance won’t need the same sort of help.</p>
<p>Part of the reason I buy it is that I want to avoid an argument as to whether any future damage is within the flood exception. By buying federal flood insurance, I think the feds will be helping me make the argument that damage is within my normal policy. At least I won’t be worrying during a storm as to whether something is/is not going to be covered.</p>
<p>It’s cheap compared to what private insurance would have to charge to make it profitable. My thinking was if there was a statutory requirement for homeowners to have flood insurance in order to live or build in certain areas and that flood insurance were obtainable only through private insurance, the vast number of people couldn’t afford to build or live there. Of course, the downside there is that, without the subsidy, we end up with only wealthy enclaves on the shore. That doesn’t sit well with me either. There is no easy answer shore of turning back the clock and not allowing any building in these areas to start with.</p>
<p>We couldn’t get a building permit unless we were above the 100 year flood plain (and we are), I would have preferred to be closer to the water, but it’s a small price to pay compared to having our house fall into the water. The Critical Dunes Act also governs where people can build in relation to the natural barriors although the act is in the process of being gutted right now since we haven’t had houses falling in the water lately and the lake levels are low. People have short term memories. I’m guessing those flood plain maps will be rewritten if they have them along the oceans and it will be more difficult to build anything new. I’m guessing existing homeowners may have some leeway. My H who was involved with zoning always had a problem when people would be flooded, build in the exact same spot with federal dollars and the total blessing of banks and get flooded again within a few years. One time I get it, and everyone impacted deserves the best our government and financial infrastructure can give. But more than once?</p>
<p>I’m hoping that Occupy Sandy participants really do something useful to help those affected by the storm.</p>
<p>Seems it would be pretty useless to collect donations, use that for themselves and sit around drinking, pounding on drums, whining about capitalism and trashing up the affected areas.</p>
<p>It would be very rewarding to see them lifting a finger to help someone else besides themselves.</p>
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<p>My parents have a condo on a barrier island. They’ve been going there for 25 years and the most damage it has ever sustained is a few shingles ripped off during a regular, run of the mill thunderstorm. They’ve had one hurricane the entire time they’ve had the property and it caused no damage. They’ve never had any flooding. If something were to happen to it now, that would be awful-- but with insurance and appropriate financial preparation it wouldn’t be financially devastating. Horribly emotionally traumatic and a really big problem, sure, but I don’t think we’d trade in the last 25 years just for that reason. They could own that condo the rest of their lives and never have anything bad happen. It’s a chance some people are willing to take.</p>
<p>I wonder if as many people would take that chance RIGHT NOW given the way the weather has been the last few years, but I imagine most of the people you’re referring to that live on those barrier islands have been there for a while and maybe until recently didn’t think they had much of anything to worry about. And for goodness sakes, there are people that know a hurricane is coming and choose not to evacuate because bad things only happen to other people, certainly those kinds of people aren’t even considering the risk of bad storms coming someday when they are making the decision to purchase a property.</p>
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<p>I can’t imagine why you think volunteers would sit around drinking and playing drums in such a situation, and in fact the Occupy Sandy people are not doing those things.</p>
<p>They are collecting donations, delivering them to people, serving hot meals, aiding elderly people with no power, and cleaning up wreckage. They are operating in areas that FEMA and the Red Cross have not yet reached. The Tri-State area has a lot of people, and there was a lot of damage in a lot of places. This is one example of what they’re up to:</p>
<p>From Two Boots in Brooklyn:</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for pitching in and getting food and supplies to those in need. We made over 40 van and car runs yesterday. We are going back to Rockaway and Red Hook today. We could use:</p>
<p>-driver with a van Breezy Point</p>
<p>-driver with van to go to SI today</p>
<p>_driver with van to go to Coney Island</p>
<p>-bread, cold cuts, pb&j</p>
<p>-protein bars</p>
<p>-ready to eat food (there is no power or gas for cooking in many areas)</p>
<p>-cleaning supplies, bleach, paper towels, mops</p>
<p>-Cold weather clothing only</p>
<p>-juice boxes</p>
<p>-snacks for kids</p>
<p>-diapers</p>
<p>-any cash donations will be spent on groceries for hot food</p>
<p>Two Boots</p>
<p>514 2nd Street (btw 7th and 8th Ave)</p>
<p>Brooklyn, NY 11215</p>
<p>CONTACT: 718 499 3253</p>
<p>[Occupy</a> Sandy Relief | Real-time Live Updates from Sandy Social Media](<a href=“http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/live/]Occupy”>http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/live/)</p>
<p>Light a single candle.</p>