Why Americans are flocking to their sinking shores
Mike Huckabee bought a beachfront lot here in 2009, a year after his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination. A longtime friend and political ally of the former Arkansas governor bought the lot next door. They planned to build $3 million vacation villas side-by-side, each with a pool and sweeping views of Walton County’s renowned sugary sand beaches and the azure waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The only hitch was that their lots lay on a severely eroding beach. Under state regulations, they couldn’t build on the seaward side of the sand dune nearest to the surf. And after seven hurricanes in six years, the surviving “frontal dune” sat too close to the street to allow space behind it for the friends’ 11,000-square-foot (1,020-square-meter)compounds.
The structural engineer they had hired knew what to do. He dumped truckloads of sand farther out on the beach, shaped it into a mound, and declared the man-made hump to be the new frontal dune. When staff at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) still balked at issuing the necessary permits, the engineer asked Michael Sole, head of the agency at the time, to intercede.
“I met with Secretary Sole on Friday …” the contractor wrote to DEP staff in a March 8, 2010, email, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters. “I believe we’ve reached a consensus decision on the location of both these projects.”
http://news.yahoo.com/why-americans-flocking-sinking-shores-142144047.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Public records show more than 500 instances across the country in which FEMA re-mapped high-end condos and mansions to change their classification from being in a highest-risk flood zone to a lower-risk one, according to the report. FEMA has deemed at least some properties lower risk despite previous flood-related claims, and over the objections of local officials.
"Carving the flood zone map like a parent cutting a notch in a jack-o'-lantern to make a tooth, FEMA moves the lines on a map for one property, while leaving its neighbors in the higher-risk zone," explains Dedman.
The new classification saves owners of these high-end properties up to 97 percent on premiums paid to the National Flood Insurance Program. Yet, these same properties can still collect on federal insurance money when their properties are damaged. The result: from the Gulf of Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine, to Orange Beach, Alabama, wealthy coastal property owners are bailed out by U.S. taxpayers for the damage wrought by climate change."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/02/18/climate-floods-surge-taxpayers-hook-insure-homes-1
PS I Love Barbados, particularly the East Coast (Bathsheba) 
I did the same thing with the chief scientist and her student in tow (research cruise). I had read a journal about the surf scene and one of the top female surfers resided in Bathsheba and owned a surf bungalow. We took a taxi (driving as a US citizen sucks) to the surftown and upon looking at the surf and seeing someone return completely tore up from the reef, we decided to just beach walk and wade in cautiously. Later we went inside the "Bungalow" that reeeked of reefer and ordered flying fishcakes. It was the Absolute most wonderful meal I've eaten in the Caribbean, served by the highest and most pleasant staff that included the owner.
The locals are Wonderful peeps!
