New England Diary

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'Streets full of water. Advise'

Flooding in Marblehead, Mass., on Oct. 29, 2012, during Hurricane Sandy.

From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com

The population of flood-prone coastal zones in America is rising faster than elsewhere. That’s because most people love to live near water and developers have huge political and economic clout. Making matters worse is that the Feds’ National Flood Insurance Program does not take into account global-warming-connected sea-level rise, which is accelerating, especially along the U.S. East Coast. Just ask the people living in such low-lying places as Newport’s Point section; but at least that neighborhood of old houses will not be seeing more development.F

And the anti-environmentalist and very developer-friendly Trump administration wants to eliminate some rules in order to make development easier in flood-prone zones! U.S. taxpayers will get stuck with ever bigger bills to clean up the damage when these areas are hit by storms.

*Line reputedly in a telegram from Venice by the late humorist Robert Benchley.

To read a Governing Magazine article on this, please hit this link.