Six out of every seven TX flood victims did NOT have flood insurance. (Alachua: apartment, houses)

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by jambo101

For those who have lost everything House/car/job and have no insurance walking away from it all seems the logical way to go..

Keep making payments......keep your credit good so you can buy a new home, car etc. Then default on the old car/home flood stuff.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by BucFan

that would be the most common scenario for flooding in my community - sewer infrastructure backing up .....we get the exact same thing on my street....

My brother in law lived in St Pete (Snell Isle).....the house he bought was right next to the Vinoy golf course. In a good rain, combined with high tide the sewers had no where to drain so the street would flood.....add a few passing cars and suddenly small waves were bouncing off the front door. Cute house in a cool area but it was a bad flood area.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

There are county and city ordinances already in place regarding most or all of the above items. They are enforced and the homeowner will be given notice to comply. If the homeowner doesn't comply within a set number of days, they are given fines which accumulate each day and eventually the county or city puts a lien on the home to cover the fines. For long grass or weeds, the city or county usually cuts it and then charges/fines the homeowner. Each of these rules depends on which city or county the property resides.

That sounds reasonable in theory. But reality is very different! We drove around a lot on our visits to SW Florida. In unrestricted areas, we found nice homes mixed together with trashy homes. Most were nicer homes, but there were some trashy homes mixed in with the nicer homes in the unrestricted areas.

Maybe the next time I visit SW Florida I'll take some photos to post for non-believes! There's reasons for so many deeded restrictions and gated communities!

[Avalon08]

Originally Posted by davephan

I agree that hurricanes have been rare events in the past 14 years. There are many stories about evacuation or at least preparation for hurricanes that weakened or change diections, and don't hit the areas. In those cases, the preparation was done for an event that didn't occur, but there would have been stress since the hurricanes could have hit.

I vaguely recall hearing a lot of stories on the national TV news several years ago about flooding in Florida, there were a lot of reports on TV at the time, I vaguely remember that it was in SW Florida near the coastline. That flooding wasn't due to a hurricane, but just due to several heavy rain events.

So, I'm not trying to imply that everyone along every coast of Florida has to evacuate multiple times every year, but there's more risk the closer you are to the coastline. You have to be OK with accepting that additional risk.

Go wherever you feel comfortable. But nowhere on the East coast is immune from hurricanes. I lived in PA when Irene hit and my friend's sister actually died trying to get to work on a flooded back road. Obviously Sandy devastated NJ/NY.

As for FL, your "vague recollection" of "flooding in Florida" could have been anywhere. First of all, there's like 1000 miles of coastline in FL, plus central FL isn't immune to flooding either. Secondly, sometimes the media hypes up events that either aren't that big a deal or are only affecting a small area.

So yes, you have to accept the additional risk of hurricanes in FL, but the idea that everyone in SW Florida is evacuating every time hurricanes head for FL is ridiculous. It's a big state. And I certainly remember when Orlando was involved in a hurricane too.

[loves2read]

435k people applying for FEMA help
And talking head who was former SE head said they are going to get the people on site to help them
Not that they HAVE the people
Or not that they have a system designed to implement right away

FEMA is already behind the curve and losing ground every hour

[Avalon08]

I hope I don't eat my words (above) if we have to evacuate for Irma.....

[davephan]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

I hope I don't eat my words (above) if we have to evacuate for Irma.....

Hopefully, the hurricane will go another direction or weaken! We were going to visit SW Florida again, arriving this Friday to look for properties again, but changed our plans about a month ago. Instead, were waiting until after I'm retired in February, when we'll have more time, we can drive down there instead of fly, and stay longer, and get away from the nasty Minnesota winter.

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by davephan

We love SW Florida, but the more we think about the risk of hurricanes and flooding, we're thinking again about central Florida, closer to Orlando, between Tampa and Orlando, on higher ground. Of course, there's a chance of localized flooding, but historically, the hurricanes weakened by the time they get to Orlando. In example of the risks for hurricanes, Disney World has closed only 3 times, all in anticipation of hurricanes: Sept. 15, 1999, for Floyd; Sept. 4-5, 2004, for Frances; and Sept. 26 of that same year for Jeanne.You may be forced to evacuate if you live too close to the coast. This could happen if the hurricane hits, misses, or changes directions. You risk evacuating multiple times per year. If you're lucky, there won't be hurricanes for years. But luck doesn't last forever!

But we prefer SW Florida over central Florida, where the pace of life is slower. But not worrying as much about hurricanes would give peace of mind. You also have to decide if you want no restrictions, deeded restrictions, or a gated community, with even more restrictions. At first, we wanted no restrictions. But things are different in Florida than the upper mid-west. In the unrestricted areas, you'll have many nice homes, and an occasional trashy home. The trashy home might have trailers, RVs, boats, many dead cars, old refrigerators, old water heaters, old toilets, and other junk decorating their front lawns. The lawn might be tall weeds or bare dirt. The home might be poorly maintained. The trashy homes, next to the nicely maintained homes lower your property values, makes it hard to sell in the future, and seems to invite more risk of criminal activity. In the upper mid-west, people take pride in their homes and it's rare see a trashy home next to nice homes.

We hate the restrictions we'd have to live under, limiting our gardening of fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers. But you need to think about how the restrictions are a way to protect you for the low-level people who think it's acceptable to live in a trashy house and drink beer while watching TV all day. The gated communities are even nicer. The homes are more consistent with each other, and there are generally less crime problems.

We plan on having a strong room, or shelter installed as a place of refuge from tornadoes, hiding in a bathtub from a tornado is not very wise, when you could have done some thinking ahead to have a real solution for the problem. We also plan to install a whole house propane powered electric generator, and add a couple of spit air-conditioners to back up the central air conditioning, in case it fails in the future. The split air conditioning could also be used when we don't need to cool the whole house. After living with a two-stage central air conditioning system, we might want change out the single-stage central air conditioning. The two-stage central air conditioning alternates between cooling and dehumidification, which lowers the humidity better without making the air temperature too cold.

if you’re upgrading, spend a bit more and get a variable speed condenser with variable speed air handler. I can power my entire home, including both 3 and 4 ton units from a 12kw portable generator, only pulling around 4kw. Hot water heater and dryer can also be used. Advantage is also my house temp never varies more than a half degree and humidity is rock steady.

[DaGoose]

Originally Posted by NCN

Have you priced flood insurance lately?

We struggled with paying the $600 flood ins bill for our house in North Port (we are not in a flood zone). Our agent strongly recommended that we buy it and that $50 a month is a bargain, especially with what's going on with climate change. It's one of those necessary evils that you hope to never use but are glad to have if needed. So yes, we opted to continue our coverage. And hopefully we won't have to initiate a claim.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by markjames68

if you’re upgrading, spend a bit more and get a variable speed condenser with variable speed air handler. I can power my entire home, including both 3 and 4 ton units from a 12kw portable generator, only pulling around 4kw. Hot water heater and dryer can also be used. Advantage is also my house temp never varies more than a half degree and humidity is rock steady.

We have a two-stage central air conditioning which alternates between cooling and dehumidification. The blower runs 24 x 7 x 365. Most of the time, the blower isn't noticeable, it's very quiet. When we change the temperature by several degrees, the blower ramps up in speed for awhile. I was told that the DC blower motor has 200 speeds, so it's not continuous, but close. Maybe what you're talking about is the condenser is a variable speed which is something we don't have. The two stage gets rid of excess humidity without making the air temperature too cold. Much more even cooling than our old single stage central AC unit.

We have a portable, gasoline 3.5 to 4 KW generator that I've never used. It's not too practical to use unless I have an outlet installed so I can hook it to the home circuit breaker panel with a manual switch over. Running a bunch of extension cords around the house wouldn't be very practical. Maybe I'll sell my gas generator or use it to backup the future whole house generator.

It sounds like you have two condensers. I've seen homes in Florida with multiple large condensors, but I'm not sure why more than one large condenser is needed. I think it would be a good idea to have a split unit in the master bedroom and maybe another split unit in the main living area for backup, and to only cool part of the house when the weather isn't as hot and humid.

I would like to get a whole house propane electric generator with an automatic start and switchover. I'm not sure how much electrical capacity would be need, and how much fuel capacity would be needed. Refilling a gas generator during a bad storm wouldn't be very pleasant! I heard there are two types of generators, air cooled and liquid cooled. I've heard it described that the air cooled generator is pretty loud, like a lawn mower, and the water cooled generator is pretty quiet, like a car engine. I think the liquid cooled generators are very expensive.