The Question To Oceanfront Property Owners NJ: Good Money After Bad? Answer: Yes!

[hatrack]

When a handful of retired homeowners from Osborn Island in New Jersey gathered last month to discuss post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and environmental protection, L. Stanton Hales Jr., a conservationist, could not have been clearer about the risks they faced.

“I said, look people, you built on a marsh island, it’s oxidizing under your feet — it’s shrinking — and that exacerbates the sea level rise,” said Dr. Hales, director of the Barnegat Bay Partnership, an estuary program financed by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Do you really want to throw good money after bad?” Their answer? Yes.

Nearly seven months after Hurricane Sandy decimated the northeastern coastline, destroying houses and infrastructure and dumping 11 billion gallons of untreated and partially treated sewage into rivers, bays, canals and even some streets, coastal communities have been racing against the clock to prepare for Memorial Day.

EDIT

But in Washington, the impulse to dial back legislation that discourages development is percolating. There were efforts in Congress to delay the introduction of higher rates for federal flood insurance (they failed last week).

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/nyregion/rebuilding-the-coastline-but-at-what-cost.html

[phantom power]

1. ...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I watch people re-build on shifting sand spits in the Gulf of Mexico after every hurricane.

For years, owners of the expensive sand dune houses would be filmed by tv as they said " We plan to re-build".

Katrina tore the long spit into 2 pieces, with a wide passage in the middle, and home owners demanded the state "do something"...so there was talk of dredging and piling up sand and in general destroying the purpose of the islands,, which is to reduce storm damage from hurricanes.
We are talking maybe 3 above sea level for houses here.

Then BP destroyed the Gulf, oiled up the sand spits, and suddenly no more talk of re-building houses.
So there is that, I suppose.

[Nihil]

3. If it's their own money then fine. If it is money from other people then no.

The stupidity of some people should not be a reason to financially punish the smart ones.