This is so sad!!! I saw this on a board I frequent. This is sick. This is largely a result of people not realizing how that Gasoline gets into their gas tank or that seafood gets on their dinner plate!!!!
People don't understand the term "Working Coast". They don't understand it seems that there is no army of Robotsmaking all this happen. IT is real flesh and blood people that have children and have communities that feed and in fact meet the Energy and National Security concerns of this nation. At times I feel we are like Serfs down here. By the way this all a great bi -partisan affair. We are out of sight and out of mind to everyone.
There will be no high ground unless we start Coastal Restoration projects. This is indeed a National Security issue. DO you know if we had spent the money that was used on the "Big Dig" in Boston that much of this could have been nipped in the bud? That vast construction project will not help America when the wetlands are gone. It will hit Americans differently. One day a Father will look back on when his daddy took him Duck and bird hunting like in Iowa. The problem is there are far less Ducks to do that since there is no Marsh and wetlands for them to go South too.
There is still time to correct the problem. However this shows me that people just don't get it
In 1958, my hometown of Cameron was wiped out by Hurricane Audrey, one of the worst storms to ever strike Louisiana. In the aftermath, Gov. Earl K. Long attended a town hall meeting to address the problem of insurance companies not paying their claims. Gov. Long told the insurance representatives, “You will honor the claims of these people, or I’ll personally see to it that none of you son-of-a-bitches ever do business in the state of Louisiana again!” The insurance companies honored their claims. The town quickly rebuilt all of the homes, schools and businesses, and thrived for almost 50 years.
In 2005, Hurricane Rita once again leveled the town. This time, most insurance policies were not honored, and the town is still struggling today to recover. Debris is everywhere, tattered homes and empty slabs are prevalent, schools have been forced into temporary buildings, and the ecological damage is beyond repair. These hard-working people have lived and survived there for generations, and are cleaning up and rebuilding everything themselves. They don’t ask for much, and are very self-sufficient, and would ultimately like to keep it that way.
Unfortunately, our government is making it very hard on them. Because FEMA helped clean up the town (and did a lousy job compared to other areas that have been hit with natural disasters), our federal government has expressed its point of view that this area should not be rebuilt, but rather abandoned for higher ground. And they’re doing everything in their power to see that through. Last week, the Draft Insurance Ratings Map was issued for Cameron Parish, and, as expected, it’s not good. There’s been some discussion amongst the townsfolk that they should opt out of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and go it alone.
What they did not foresee would be the federal government’s strong-arm response to nip that notion in the bud. Below is what our United States government has threatened if these people chose to opt out of the
NFIP:
1. Not one person in the parish will be allowed to buy national flood insurance.
2. Anyone who has a mortgage with a private bank, SBA, VA, or other federally-backed agency must maintain flood insurance, or the lending agency will be forced to foreclose.
3. If the town opts out, even surplus line insurance carriers that the state does not even regulate will not be allowed to write policies for mobile or modular homes, and will only cover structures which are at the base flood elevation (12-18 ft. above ground in lower Cameron Parish).
4. No one in the parish will be eligible for any type of federal loan, such as SBA or VA.
5. The parish would lose federal subsidies for fire departments, the sheriff’s department, Council on Aging, Head Start, etc.
6. Already purchased NFIP policies will not be honored.
7. In the event of another disaster, no publicly owned buildings, such as schools, libraries, recreation facilities, fire stations, ambulance stations and police stations, will qualify to receive federal funding to rebuild.
8. Federally funded recovery programs such as Road Home will not be available
. 9. Even if opted out, the parish will still not be exempt from the International Building Code requirements Obviously, the parish cannot opt out if it’s to have a viable economic future. And now, it can barely have that even if it stays in the program because of the gargantuan building codes and insurance requirements placed on homes and businesses (With the waterfront offshore oil production facilities being exempted from these requirements).
What in the holy name of God has happened to this country? Here are people trying to live their lives, and our so-called nation of freedom and democracy is behaving like North Korea or Myanmar towards its own people. Has our government done anything quite this Orwellian to try to prevent people in other areas of the country from rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of a natural disaster? In Oklahoma, after a tornado? Or California after an earthquake? Or Missouri after a flood? Or Arizona after a fire? Or Illinois after an ice storm? The answer is clearly HELL NO!
What a sad commentary on the noble establishment of this country. Our forefathers would be sick at this baloney, as am I. It’s truly despicable in this day and age, for the world’s so-called Superpower to refuse to assist a small, humble town because Washington D.C. knows better what’s good for us. Good night, America. It was fun while it lasted.
People don't understand the term "Working Coast". They don't understand it seems that there is no army of Robotsmaking all this happen. IT is real flesh and blood people that have children and have communities that feed and in fact meet the Energy and National Security concerns of this nation. At times I feel we are like Serfs down here. By the way this all a great bi -partisan affair. We are out of sight and out of mind to everyone.
There will be no high ground unless we start Coastal Restoration projects. This is indeed a National Security issue. DO you know if we had spent the money that was used on the "Big Dig" in Boston that much of this could have been nipped in the bud? That vast construction project will not help America when the wetlands are gone. It will hit Americans differently. One day a Father will look back on when his daddy took him Duck and bird hunting like in Iowa. The problem is there are far less Ducks to do that since there is no Marsh and wetlands for them to go South too.
There is still time to correct the problem. However this shows me that people just don't get it
Government Gone Bad -
In 1958, my hometown of Cameron was wiped out by Hurricane Audrey, one of the worst storms to ever strike Louisiana. In the aftermath, Gov. Earl K. Long attended a town hall meeting to address the problem of insurance companies not paying their claims. Gov. Long told the insurance representatives, “You will honor the claims of these people, or I’ll personally see to it that none of you son-of-a-bitches ever do business in the state of Louisiana again!” The insurance companies honored their claims. The town quickly rebuilt all of the homes, schools and businesses, and thrived for almost 50 years.
In 2005, Hurricane Rita once again leveled the town. This time, most insurance policies were not honored, and the town is still struggling today to recover. Debris is everywhere, tattered homes and empty slabs are prevalent, schools have been forced into temporary buildings, and the ecological damage is beyond repair. These hard-working people have lived and survived there for generations, and are cleaning up and rebuilding everything themselves. They don’t ask for much, and are very self-sufficient, and would ultimately like to keep it that way.
Unfortunately, our government is making it very hard on them. Because FEMA helped clean up the town (and did a lousy job compared to other areas that have been hit with natural disasters), our federal government has expressed its point of view that this area should not be rebuilt, but rather abandoned for higher ground. And they’re doing everything in their power to see that through. Last week, the Draft Insurance Ratings Map was issued for Cameron Parish, and, as expected, it’s not good. There’s been some discussion amongst the townsfolk that they should opt out of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and go it alone.
What they did not foresee would be the federal government’s strong-arm response to nip that notion in the bud. Below is what our United States government has threatened if these people chose to opt out of the
NFIP:
1. Not one person in the parish will be allowed to buy national flood insurance.
2. Anyone who has a mortgage with a private bank, SBA, VA, or other federally-backed agency must maintain flood insurance, or the lending agency will be forced to foreclose.
3. If the town opts out, even surplus line insurance carriers that the state does not even regulate will not be allowed to write policies for mobile or modular homes, and will only cover structures which are at the base flood elevation (12-18 ft. above ground in lower Cameron Parish).
4. No one in the parish will be eligible for any type of federal loan, such as SBA or VA.
5. The parish would lose federal subsidies for fire departments, the sheriff’s department, Council on Aging, Head Start, etc.
6. Already purchased NFIP policies will not be honored.
7. In the event of another disaster, no publicly owned buildings, such as schools, libraries, recreation facilities, fire stations, ambulance stations and police stations, will qualify to receive federal funding to rebuild.
8. Federally funded recovery programs such as Road Home will not be available
. 9. Even if opted out, the parish will still not be exempt from the International Building Code requirements Obviously, the parish cannot opt out if it’s to have a viable economic future. And now, it can barely have that even if it stays in the program because of the gargantuan building codes and insurance requirements placed on homes and businesses (With the waterfront offshore oil production facilities being exempted from these requirements).
What in the holy name of God has happened to this country? Here are people trying to live their lives, and our so-called nation of freedom and democracy is behaving like North Korea or Myanmar towards its own people. Has our government done anything quite this Orwellian to try to prevent people in other areas of the country from rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of a natural disaster? In Oklahoma, after a tornado? Or California after an earthquake? Or Missouri after a flood? Or Arizona after a fire? Or Illinois after an ice storm? The answer is clearly HELL NO!
What a sad commentary on the noble establishment of this country. Our forefathers would be sick at this baloney, as am I. It’s truly despicable in this day and age, for the world’s so-called Superpower to refuse to assist a small, humble town because Washington D.C. knows better what’s good for us. Good night, America. It was fun while it lasted.
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