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Letters to Falcon

Why do they live there?

Falcon,

I can never understand why people who live on outer islands in states such as New Jersey would build homes just a stone’s throw from the ocean.

Just how stupid could a person be to build a home jutting out into the ocean on a sandy strip of low land and not know it’s capable of being blown away every hurricane season or damaged just from high seas?

It’s very hard to feel any sympathy for people who challenge Mother Nature in this way, a way in which they’ll come out on the losing end every time a hurricane or high seas occurr.

One can see homes in California that overhang cliffs with posts holding up parts of the house that hang over the cliff.    The last I heard is California is prone to earthquakes; so why would the state allow people to build homes overhanging cliffs with a few posts holding up the front of the house.  California is also prone to fires that in return can cause mudslides after heavy rains yet in California people build homes on hillsides in forested areas and then wonder why they get hit by mudslides.

I think Americans, who live in or on known dangerous areas such as on or near beaches prone to hurricanes, on earthquake faults, overhanging cliffs in earthquake prone areas, near rivers that constantly flood regardless of levees and so on should all be responsible for their own insurance and not be the responsibility of the taxpayer for their poor decisions.  If they want to live dangerously then it should be their problem should they lose their home.

Just take a drive along Highway 99 below the Burlington bluffs and one can see where huge sections of rock have fallen off and now lay in close proximity to the highway.  Some of those homes look like there at risk of a height adjustment sometime in the future, just take a look up there as you drive north on 99.  There’s a price to pay for the view and I would assume they accept the responsibility should their view vanish along with their home and they should not expect the taxpayer to be responsible.

People that risk their homes for a view or to be near water or overlooking town should also accept responsibility for their own risk taking and not be dependent on the taxpayer to bail them out.

There were pictures on the news of hundreds of homes or beach houses built on sandbars, at sea level just feet from the Atlantic Ocean with just inches between the homes all asking to be wiped out by a hurricane or high seas along the New Jersey coast, of course many states have the same problem along the U.S. coastal areas and not just New Jersey.

People that build homes in known dangerous areas should bear their own responsibility when disaster strikes over and over again by buying private insurance to cover their losses.   There are people along the Mississippi that have collected money from the taxpayer more than once for their losses caused by flooding and this is wrong simply because it’s a known risk and can be avoided if they didn’t build in the flood plain.  The taxpayer just shouldn’t be responsible for people that just make dumb decisions by placing themselves and their families in harms way.

-DG