Sarasota! Learn from Hurricane Sandy (power lines, home, neighborhood)

[loves2read]

I read an article about how some towns in New Jersey (and maybe other states in that area) have been very resistant to being involved in the national Flood insurance program, not encouraging their citizens to take out flood insurance even when their homes were in close proximity to the coast line or low lying areas and very vulnerable in situations like Sandy's mega swath...
They didn't want to take the steps to create wider barriers to the ocean's encroachment--which probably would have meant using eminent domain and buying homes closest to the water and creating beaches/mfg barriers to break the storm surge...
They certainly didn't do anything to create underground utility lines in older areas close to the ocean...

And I bet if you knew about their building codes many of the smaller towns had not upgraded building codes for new construction/remodeling that are as stringent as the newer FL codes...

Most of these people won't qualify for insurance help from their own home insurance because most of their loss is going to be from flooding damage...and they can argue all they want about wind and tree damage but anything the carriers can lay off to flooding and escape responsibility is probably doing to happen--
And who has the money in this situation to sue an insurance carrier...

if they didn't have flood insurance, they are in all likelihood personally responsible for large $$ of damage--so they will in effect be homeless cause they can't afford to rebuilt...or repair significant damage...
Meaning that some homes will stay derelict for years--like those along the Gulf Coast after Katrina
(New Orleans was only part of the damage zone for Katrina even if it got most of the media attention)...

Many to most people still have mortgages to pay off--just because the house has been destroyed doesn't mean the mortgage was destroyed--
so some banks may wind up having damaged properties that people walk away from when they find out there is no insurance relief...

And newer insurance policies often have higher % of deductible required from homeowner depending on the policy, location/age of the home and other variables...
Maybe lot of those homes didn't have that type of policy but that is something states like FL and TX where hurricanes are more problematic have had for several years...

Next week when the election comes, the news cycle is going to be all about that and whoever wins--especially if there are any disputed election results in purple states...
The Sandy story is going to be pushed back and won't be national news...
Just like Katrina--people can only take so many stories like that before they tune out...

But there doesn't seem to be the massive screwups with FEMA and disaster relief that ruled the news for Katrina...
Although I think the frustration of some people is understandable, the reactions and really limited understanding of how difficult it is to bring things back to normal after such significant, wide-spread damage is pretty pathetic...

If Mitt Romney wanted to win more votes, all he should do is have 300 gasoline tankers filled up and driven into that area and give out free tankfuls of gasoline...
It would be cheapest advertising and probably more effective $ for $ than most of what is being spent now...
And if something like that did happen, I bet some of those people in dire distress, drive 3 blocks, siphon the gas from their tank and sell it for $$$ to others willing to pay for it...

[MrRee]

One thing that is NOT mentioned is the fact that if you live in an area NOT designated as a flood zone, you can't even buy flood insurance !!

It happened to me. I lived on a river that overflowed its banks every few years, but I could not buy flood insurance as it was not in a designated zone.

[loves2read]

THAT is the reason towns have to be involved in this process of getting better information to their citizens...and being proactive about the nature of flood insurance and zoning...

There is a process to get areas with low possibility of flooding coded by FEMA to allow flood ins but most people don't want the negative label that having flood insurance carries...

We have house in TX in DFW area--
There was big rainy season in summer several years ago--very unTexas like--
Creeks overflowed, some people were trapped in mobile home park in low lying area, some homes had their lots that backed up to one of the flooding creeks eroded by storm water and at least one home had to be declared uninhabitable...
After that FEMA revised some flood maps--
OUR house which backs to what is basically a run-off creek to carry watershed flow to larger creek north of our house was rezoned from X (which is borderline unknown flood risk) into having its attached garage in flood plain...
We got letter from our mortgage holder about it, saying we needed flood insurance...
We got a flood elevation certificate and applied for a LOMA revision...and got it...
so the house is not in the flood plain, doesn't need flood insurance BUT we could get it if we wanted to

I would almost be more afraid of water getting into the house from storm drains in the street in front that are too full to handle heavy, flooding rains than from the creek in back...
But that is not something most people even think about when they think "flooding"
We were not forced to take out flood insurance after we got the LOMA revision--
But we took flood insurance out on house we bought in FL that is NOT in flood plain--wasn't required when we bought in May...
But house is close to the Gulf (less than 2 mi probably as crow flies) and doesn't seem to have lot of storm sewers in the neighborhood to handle hurricane-level rain.
So it just seemed prudent to take it out...

[blueherons]

A couple of things.

You absolutely can buy flood insurance if you aren't in a flood zone. My mother had it on one of her condos that did flood from hurricane Floyd. She was the only person in a 400 unit complex that had it. Now this may vary state to state and this was Myrtle Beach, SC.

As far as leaving the chlorine tablets on the floor of your home, the initial surge would blow out the chlorine tablets. Hurricane Hugo lifted the furniture off the floor of our home, trashed the ceiling of our house by churning it around, before it blew the furniture out of the house by taking out the rear wall.

[NYtoOsprey]

yeah, i am about to buy my flood insurance and i am not in the flood zone. i think it ends at my front yard though so I want to be safe and be covered

[SeekingWarmth211]

What are the areas of Sarasota that are least likely to flood in the event of tidal surge from a serious storm like Sandy? Not interested in flood maps Thanks!

[loves2read]

The problem is that most people don't want to pay for something they don't think they will need and knowing WHEN you would actually need flood ins is a crap shoot...

After my mom died, my dad married a woman who owned a house on the Guadalupe river east of San Antonio in central TX..she had built the house with a prior husband and they lived there for 30 yrs probably without any water getting close to their house...
Her house was on the "high side" of the river--meaning there was about a 30+ft steep bluff down to the river bed...
The river was not a creek--it normally had a decent water flow even when there is drought and there had been times when it flooded..but because the bluff drop was so high above the river level, they were never threatened before by having flood waters get close to the top of THEIR lot...
Then the rains came...rains that lasted for a solid month w/o a break...

There was huge flood along that river and the San Marcos in central TX
The river authority did not release enough water soon enough along the river where there were dams generating electricity...although that might only have mitigated the flooding to lesser degree--not prevented it entirely...

Their house which was about 30 ft back from the edge of the river bluff was flooded--
Water up to the ceiling...eveything was pretty much destroyed although the house wasn't lifted off its concrete slab foundation...the dominos were still lying on the kitchen table when the water receeded...
They found them when they went back to the house to check on the damage...

Because the flooding happened during the early morning hours when people were asleep---nothing on the news the night before about a need to evacuate in their area--
They were almost trapped and killed...
Her daughter lived close enough to come by the house and rouse them and get them and their two dogs into one car and they drove out
All personal belongings were in house
NO flood insurance
She just sold the house for what she could get because she could not stand the idea of what it would take to make the house habitable...and these were people in their late 70s/early 80s at that time
So I can totally sympathize with the people devestated by Hurricane Sandy

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by SeekingWarmth211

What are the areas of Sarasota that are least likely to flood in the event of tidal surge from a serious storm like Sandy? Not interested in flood maps Thanks!

In a storm that bad, practically the whole city will be under water. Sarasota is very low-lying and has poor drainage. I have seen storms (not hurricanes, just a lot of rain) that put low-lying neighborhoods completely under water. You should be interested in flood maps, why would you not be?

I live in Whitfield Estates (Manatee County) and despite being only two blocks from the bay, the neighborhood has excellent drainage. Manatee County upgraded the storm drains here in the last couple years and no matter how much or how long it rains, it is drained off in minutes; where some of the streets in Sarasota are like rivers. That won't help in storm surge of course, but there is not much you can do in that case except get out of its way.

Check out this old article from 1992 showing flooding in Colonial Oaks, several miles inland:

Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search

[loves2read]

We have friend whose sister and BIL live on Montauk--on Long Island--close to park--
They were w/o power for 48 hrs but have gas for their stovetop...their concern is gasoline
Her sister works for one of the neighboring towns--mayor's secretary or something..
She went to work Thursday...but getting gasoline is the problem...
They put themselves in this problem by buying and living in an area that is frankly isolated in the sense that there is only ONE main road in and out...
That was underwater for part of the storm on Wednesday she found out but no big damage...
Some people waiting in all those lines for gas would have done themselves more good to stay home and help clean up in their area...
This storm was HUGE--and expecting the damage to be dealt with overnight or in three days is immature and unrealistic...
Turn off the news and help someone...

[loves2read]

some people will NEVER prepare no matter what the government local, state, federal does or doesn't do...
I don't know how much experience you have working with the public--
My experience was as a public school teacher and as a caseworker for Texas in Health and Human Services...
My experience tells me that 50% or more of people are going to do what they want to--no matter what government says
And for some people the more government tells them to do one thing, they do something else...
In all likelihood the people doing the most complaining are never going to change...
They just like to complain