Ian Aftermath.... | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

Ian Aftermath....

When’s the last time a Syracuse blizzard caused the kind of damage that a hurricane does seemingly every other year?
Ok, so what is your point ? Should there be no assistance when tragedy strikes including if central NY is hit ? Should everybody move to Syracuse ?? As I recall NY was hit pretty hard by Sandy. You just don’t know. Yeah, the odds may be worse in Florida, but believe me, that is reflected in my insurance premiums.
 
people should make their own living choices and they should assume the risk and assume higher casualty insurance rates for their choices.
I don't disagree at all. If someone wants to live on the Gulf Coast and assume the risk, that's entirely their choice. It's a gorgeous part of the country. All I'm saying is the government (i.e. FEMA) shouldn't be subsidizing the risk.
 
I don't understand why taxpayers are on the hook for this. We should be discouraging living in high-risk coastal areas. FEMA should provide emergency vouchers to help people to buy/rent inland outside of 100-year floodplains.
I agree with the first 2 sentences.
 
Ok, so what is your point ? Should there be no assistance when tragedy strikes including if central NY is hit ? Should everybody move to Syracuse ?? As I recall NY was hit pretty hard by Sandy. You just don’t know. Yeah, the odds may be worse in Florida, but believe me, that is reflected in my insurance premiums.
It's assumption of the risk. The issue is not what your insurance costs, it's that the federal government (tax payers) are bailing out people who move to areas with these known risks who have not insured/saved enough to cover inevitable losses.
 
Nice answer smart ass. Ive been screwed over by insurance companies. Thus my hate. I have to have insurance, they know that. And they dont mind canceling me after paying for 30 years and filing two claims in three years for something I couldn’t prevent

We filed claim several years ago and got canceled. Our only claim and it was for water damage. Now we have mud stains throughout our home and we are debating on whether or not to file because we don't want to be canceled again.
 
I don't understand why taxpayers are on the hook for this. We should be discouraging living in high-risk coastal areas. FEMA should provide emergency vouchers to help people to buy/rent inland outside of 100-year floodplains.

Cape Coral has never had a flood insurance claim in the past. I see your point though. Some places have been rebuilt 2 and 3 times like Dauphin Island Al. I have no problem with 2 times and you're on your own.
 
And what about high earthquake areas ? Should we also abandon half of California. Then you have volcano areas. should we abandon half the Pacific NW as well as the big island ?? And then there is one of the most under estimated causes of casualty damage...hail. Should we abandon places that can get big hailstorms ??? You usually post wisely, but this time u r on a slippery slope. If the Big One hits LA or SF, Ian will seem like a walk in the park. No, people should make their own living choices and they should assume the risk and assume higher casualty insurance rates for their choices. We as a country need to help fellow citizens when disaster strikes because major events can cause major harm anywhere. Syracuse is blizzard prone. We just never know for sure. No place is 100% immune.
While I agree with much of what you said, we also need to learn from these events to mitigate against what we know will happen again. If we're going to rebuild destroyed structures with the same kinds of buildings and in the same places, what have we learned?

I worked for FEMA for a long time. There are disasters some place almost all the time. Many of those are repeat events. Some places with frequent hurricanes deal with it with concrete structures rather than wood frame construction. If we're going to build on barrier islands, it's easy to see what not to rebuild. My parents had a woodframe retirement home about a mile from the atlantic ocean not far north of west palm beach. It was damaged three times in two years by hurricanes. They couldn't afford insurance and I spent years fixing their home knowing it was only a matter of time before it was damaged again.

There are villages and cities in the northeast that are prone to floods and people rebuild homes in the same places where their destroyed homes were located in the 100 year flood plain. How is that a good play? About 25 years ago, large swaths of the Midwest were underwater and entire towns were moved from the flood plain to the bluffs above. Those people learned.

I live in hail country with a metal roof that looks like a golf ball. People actually replace damaged shingle roofs with more shingles. Huh? This is also high fire danger territory. Many homes are built with fire resistant materials but many aren't. Homeowners insurance is expensive here. I had one fire get within about 10 miles of my house and it destroyed hundreds of homes. My go bag was ready.

Every place has its liabilities but insurance isn't the only answer. Barrier islands and coastline may not be the best places to build structures that can't weather major storms and massive storm surge. The very ground those places are built on can change with every storm. How much risk is too much? How many times should our society pay to repair damage that could have been foreseen? I'm not just taking about coastlines. River flooding causes massive damages that repeat with regularity. Eventually we need to learn to give nature some space and respect its power.

JMHO
 
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I am tired of the government bailing out irresponsible people with tax dollars. Only 20 percent of those who chose to live in the affected area had flood insurance. Why should the rest of America bail out the irresponsible 80 percent. Likewise with forgiving student loan debt. I know countless students and parents who worked their butts off and sacrificed in order to minimize and/or repay student loans. Why should they now be paying for loan scofflaws? What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?
 
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I am tired of the government bailing out irresponsible people with tax dollars. Only 20 percent of those in the affected area had flood insurance. Why should the rest of America bail out the irresponsible 80 percent. Likewise with forgiving student loan debt. I know countless students and parents who worked their backs off and sacrificed in order to avoid and/or repay student loans. Why should they now be paying for loan scofflaws? What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?
What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?...Maybe that idea has been deformed through the purchase of votes with entitlement programs and incentivizing people not to work by promoting anxiety that does not accurately reflect reality?
 
I am tired of the government bailing out irresponsible people with tax dollars. Only 20 percent of those who chose to live in the affected area had flood insurance. Why should the rest of America bail out the irresponsible 80 percent. Likewise with forgiving student loan debt. I know countless students and parents who worked their butts off and sacrificed in order to minimize and/or repay student loans. Why should they now be paying for loan scofflaws? What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?
Providing aid does not have to mean making people whole who chose not to insure. Aid can mean help with food, water, and temporary shelter in disaster areas.

I would be really surprised if mortgage providers would even have approved a loan in those areas without requiring flood insurance, but maybe I am wrong on that one.

but, yes, you are mostly correct.
 
What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?...Maybe that idea has been deformed through the purchase of votes with entitlement programs and incentivizing people not to work by promoting anxiety that does not accurately reflect reality?
Incentivizing people not to work? Entitlement programs? Any other joke talking points you want to add in there? You probably believe there are litter boxes in school bathrooms and pole dancing classes for kindergartners too.
 
Providing aid does not have to mean making people whole who chose not to insure. Aid can mean help with food, water, and temporary shelter in disaster areas.

I would be really surprised if mortgage providers would even have approved a loan in those areas without requiring flood insurance, but maybe I am wrong on that one.

but, yes, you are mostly correct.
Correct on the mortgage companies. If you are in a flood zone you will need flood insurance to obtain your mortgage. Same in California and other states with high fire risks. My son lives in a little area surrounded by fire risk but about 5 blocks that include his home are not high risk. We know that from when he obtained his mortgage.
But as a Realtor I always check the flood insurance maps to make sure the buyer knows they made need it, and sometimes that extra cost makes the home unobtainable for them to qualify for the loan. In California, the same is true for fire risk maps.
 
I am tired of the government bailing out irresponsible people with tax dollars. Only 20 percent of those who chose to live in the affected area had flood insurance. Why should the rest of America bail out the irresponsible 80 percent. Likewise with forgiving student loan debt. I know countless students and parents who worked their butts off and sacrificed in order to minimize and/or repay student loans. Why should they now be paying for loan scofflaws? What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?
I know parents who work their butts off with two/three jobs that still couldn’t afford to send their kids to school. So just like healthcare just screw kids that weren’t born to rich families?

I paid my loans off and I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination yet I have zero issue with my tax dollars going into educating the youth and giving healthcare to anyone needs it in the country.
 
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I know parents who work their butts off with two/three jobs that still couldn’t afford to send their kids to school. So just like healthcare just screw kids that weren’t born to rich families.

I paid my loans off and I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination yet I have zero issue with my tax dollars going into educating the youth and giving healthcare to anyone needs it in the country.
Amen.
 
I am tired of the government bailing out irresponsible people with tax dollars. Only 20 percent of those who chose to live in the affected area had flood insurance. Why should the rest of America bail out the irresponsible 80 percent. Likewise with forgiving student loan debt. I know countless students and parents who worked their butts off and sacrificed in order to minimize and/or repay student loans. Why should they now be paying for loan scofflaws? What has happened to the idea of taking responsibility for one's choices?

How much did 4 years at SU cost when you graduated?
 
I graduated in 1979 and my total cost for tuition, room and board, fees, etc. was under $7,800 @ SU. I had to pay my own way to college, along with my seven siblings. Today it’s over $80,000. The amount of debt today for students is not comparable to forty years ago. The bigger question is why the cost of higher education is so out of whack today? Some of the grants for financial aide has not changed since I graduated. People in Syracuse are giddy over Micron coming to Syracuse. No one seems to be bitching about the billions in tax payer money for incentives with a company who profited nearly $10 billion dollars last year. I can’t answer if the government should help out the families in Florida. I do find it to be incompressible if anyone is allowed to rebuild in these areas, including people who have millions or billions to spend. I guess it’s hard for people with money, who had their education paid for, to understand that all students can’t afford college without some help. I paid my college loans back, but I don’t have a problem with people getting $10,000 to try to offset their loans that may total over $100,000, especially when corporate America get hand outs and tax credits all the time.
 
I am in South Florida so we have minimum damages other then debris.

But I would like to share my experiences to those who suffered some damages and are thinking about calling the insurance companies. This may or may not play out to your advantage.

I own a number of properties and after each storm like Wilma, Michael and Irma suffered damages.

One year I had a tree branch come down from 40' above and punched through the roof and you can see the branch sticking down into the ceiling. Flooded the space below. Same property had half the fence collapsed, two more trees came down on the driveway tore up the retaining wall around the tree bed. Lots of debris and landscape damages.

So I called the insurance company. I was like caller #244. LOL, estimated wait time INFINITY. Waited two more days and scheduled an adjustor to come out.

Now depends on your policy you need to make sure you call the right company. If you have company A for homeowners, company B for windstorm, and company C for flood, you need to know what is the cause of the damages to call the right company. Don't call homeowners insurance if you have a roof blown off. That's windstorm. If water rose up and came into the house, it's flood insurance.

Secondly, know your deductible. Many homes have the standard 5% deductible for primary structures. So if your home is valued at 500K, 5% of that is 25K. You are responsible for 25K! So if your damages are less than 25K calling them is a bad deal, it's a waste of time and will only get your rate jacked up next year.

Thirdly, debris cleaning, tree cutting, hauling off a bunch of 500 pound tree limbs are not covered. Collapsed retaining walls, broken and down fences, standalone sheds are most likely not covered due to them not being "primary structures".

So with a lot of damages and debris all around and a 25K deductible, the adjuster calculates your covered damages and tells you it's 17K and you have to pay for all of it and he leaves and you pay for all the expenses.

This is not the end. A month later the insurance carrier calls and wants to come to do an inspection, why? You didn't pay a dime of it! Well sir, we need to make sure you fixed it properly and need to see permit papers contractor invoices etc...Why? Because many people choose to NOT make repairs or to make improper repairs, so you have a 17K damage on your roof, if you don't fix it the next storm comes around and do a 12K damage, then the next adjuster, not knowing you have a pre-existing situation will end up with a 29K estimate, requiring us to pay $4000 since it's above the deductible. So we need to make sure the damages are repaired, or we will have to cancel you.

...and since you filed a claim, and even we didn't pay you, you are now in a higher risk class, so we have to raise your rate by 30%, on top of the 32% we are raising everyone already...have a good day Sir.

So review your policy and read the fine print before you call. In addition, if you call an insurance company and file a claim, your repairs most likely need to be documented, so think twice before hiring an unlicensed contractor or pay cash to a lower bidder.
Thank God I have USAA. $1,000 deductible and no hassel. After Irma they even gave my $500 for the food in my freezer even know it was almost empty before the storm.
 
Nothing. I had a full scholarship and worked part time throughout my four years there.
That is awesome! And I know you’ve done truly remarkable things with your education and hard work and I have zero beef with that, but imagine if we can have other kids follow that path and do the same, wouldn’t that be great for the community and country?
 
It's assumption of the risk. The issue is not what your insurance costs, it's that the federal government (tax payers) are bailing out people who move to areas with these known risks who have not insured/saved enough to cover inevitable losses.

Insurance companies don't insure for "inevitable losses." It's why wear and tear, etc. aren't covered, however, the 'resultant' damages are because of the "fortuitous" event.
 
I know parents who work their butts off with two/three jobs that still couldn’t afford to send their kids to school. So just like healthcare just screw kids that weren’t born to rich families?

I paid my loans off and I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination yet I have zero issue with my tax dollars going into educating the youth and giving healthcare to anyone needs it in the country.

The Top 10 percent own 70% of wealth in this country. The Top 1% own as much wealth than the bottom 90%.

Wealthy folks have an issue with bailouts, etc., unless it's beneficial to them. Just as we all witnessed during the Great Recession of 2008, and the related entities, etc. that received such immense good fortune.
 
Does anyone have a copy of The Daily Worker I can borrow
Plan on responding to a personal ad in it?

george costanza massage chair GIF
 

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