Last week, an old friend was in town. He lives on the water in Florida and is contemplating buying a cabin in Georgia that is faces a beautiful, scenic river.
These days, living on the water is seductive and, as we've learned from a few recent super storms, possibly dangerous. And when he showed me the Georgia broker's video tour of the property, I could understand why he might be willing to take a risk.
You could see the river from every room, and you could hear the water flowing by. There were lots of fish you could catch off the pier and eat for dinner. It was absolutely beautiful, and I got it. Who wouldn't want to live like this?
But wait. I am the daughter of a hydrologist who spend a long career with the US Geological Survey. He was concerned with floods, both controlling them and minimizing the consequences when one rolled down the river. And I remember many supper table conversations about what he considered the idiocy of building homes on flood plains.
My friend and I talked about this, and he had done some due diligence. Yes, the cabin was on a flood plain, and yes it had flooded once in the 1990's. And if he bought it with a mortgage, he would be required to purchase flood insurance. And I'm sure that he will work the uncertainty of future insurance costs into the price he offers for the place.
So he is aware of the risks, and in the end he may or may not be willing to take them. But it is a choice he'll have to make. And part of the decision will be the cost of insurance or, if he pays cash, the cost of rebuilding should this adorable place ever float down the river.
Until now, the Federal flood insurance program has been heavily subsidized by the federal government (that would be us taxpayers), and right now that program is up in the air as Congress debates whether or not they should continue this subsidy to people who build or buy homes by the water - often second homes where they spend vacations. And I have mixed feelings.
I came very close to falling for a gorgeous place right on the flood plane of the Occaquan River. It was a newly built Victorian style townhouse with high end finishes, a pier with a boat slip included, and a wow factor that wouldn't quit. And as I was being seduced by the water fowl, calming surroundings and sound of the passing water, I had to wonder how that might feel if the water got wild and was lapping at the front door!
And I could hear my father's voice lecturing us at the dinner table about houses on flood plains.
But, Dad! It's a 100 year flood plain, and it already flooded back in the 70's. By 2070 when the next one is due, I'll be with you up in heaven or wherever they send curmudgeonly Kennedys to spend eternity.
Of course, homes on flood plains are not the only ones at the mercy of Mother Nature. I grew up in Tornado Alley, and while my father did a few flood plain rants, he never questioned living in a place wiere the tornado warning sirens blared out a few times a month. (After I'd gone off to college, they did find themselves in the path a big old tornado, but it lifted up for a block when it got to our house - minor damage in the middle of rubble). Being (forget about living) in Los Angeles or San Francisco brings out my irrational fear of earthquakes.
But to my knowledge, getting insurance against such natural disasters does not involve federal government subsidies, even when the market place diictates high policy rates.
So what do you think?
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