Ivan Slams Gulf Coast, Florida Bears Brunt (loss of luxury homes)

[Shallah Kali]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&e=3&u=/nm/weather_ivan_dc

(JEB) Bush said initial reports from the barrier islands were "heart-breaking."


"Entire houses were taken off their foundations and disappeared because of the storm surge. These are newly built, luxury homes that don't exist now. That's pretty powerful."


President Bush (news - web sites), the governor's brother, declared a disaster in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, paving the way for federal emergency aid. The president planned to visit the hurricane strike zone on Sunday.


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Maybe I am reading too much into this but I personally find it telling that Jeb is talking about the loss of new luxury homes.


Don't mind me I am paranoid :tinfoilhat:

[yardwork]

1. It is very creepy - what a callous statement

These people don't even realize how elitest and self-centered they are.

[Cha]

2. I don't mind you! I was imagining jeb just wallowing

in pity for these "luxury homes".

How would he be talking about poor people's homes?

[ozymandius]

26. This is so offensively absurd.

Is Jeb lamenting that neither his God nor the hurricane spared these luxury homes? Odd that he would so quickly mention 'luxury homes' - like they're beloved to Jesus or something.

[Joanne98]

3. OH NO not the luxury homes. Anything but that!!!

Rate it a five. It will make OUTSOURCED peasants feel better.

new title: Ivan the Terrible Hates the Rich.....:)

[faithnotgreed]

4. yeah. powerful. tell that to the..never mind. kitty kelley speaks truth

about these people.

"accumulation of wealth is all that matters to them"

[Cha]

5. I was trying to see what parts of Florida

that Ivan settled on..and I saw this..

"Six people died in northwest Florida when tornadoes touched down. An 8-year-old girl in Milton died when a tree fell on her home. Two people died in Mississippi -- one was electrocuted while removing an antenna from a power line and the other was crushed by a tree limb while trying to clear debris."

Tornadoes, too!? What's happening down there!?

[yardwork]

7. Tornadoes spin off hurricanes - its a common side effect

The worst impact from hurricanes is flooding from heavy rain, and that will be felt well inland. Most victims of hurricanes drown.

[GreatScott]

6. Look at the bright side

They can be rebuilt by Union carpenters

[Eye and Monkey]

9. I wouldn't bet on union carpenters doing the rebuilding.

Maybe some.

I'd bet that there's more than one Republican "construction entrepreneur", say in south Texas, who has already loaded-up a van with folks who come from a very cheap labor pool.

[drdtroit]

18. NOT in Florida baby!

Right to work state.

[gennifer6]

8. Ivan

many "luxury homes" built these days are slapped up as quickly as possible in freshly-paved developments by construction companies looking to make a quick buck off rich folks....
don't let the top 1% get wet....

[girl gone mad]

12. I was thinking the same thing.

MSNBC (I think) did a piece on a man who had built a hurricane-ready home. It looked pretty cool. Did anyone else catch it or see if they checked up on him after Ivan?


I bet these homes will be rebuilt without anyone put a single thought into engineering them to be more stable during a hurricane.

Welcome to DU, btw.

[tlcandie]

20. Yes, the oddly shaped home survived while all around him was

pummeled to nothing! Amazing!!

[leetrisck]

23. That home was goverment sponsored/built

that came out later after the storm when the reporter was talking about it. The "owner" said he was working in conjunction with goverment offices

[private_ryan]

10. reading too much into it

"Entire houses were taken off their foundations and disappeared because of the storm surge. These are newly built, luxury homes that don't exist now. That's pretty powerful."

he's making the case that these weren't trailer parks or cheap houses. The storm was so powerful that no house was spared; even expensive houses couldn't withstand the storm.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. I'd be willing to bet that your interpretation is not the way he meant it.

[hatrack]

11. Oh, the humanity!

Pity the poor millionaires!

They have builded their McMansions upon barrier islands made of sand in hurricane country when, to everyone's surprise, THIS happened!

No one - I repeat, NO ONE - could have POSSIBLY foreseen this tragic, tragic loss of drywall, SubZero stoves and Thomas Kincade paintings!

Nothing can compare to the pathos and drama of this amazing event - certainly not slashed-and-burned trailer parks, dead tornado victims and massive flooding throughout the Southeast.

[girl gone mad]

13. Thomas Kinkade...

lol. You're funny.

[Tansy_Gold]

14. Just thinking of all the Kinkades lost to Ivan makes me want to

pray for more hurricanes. :evilgrin:

Seriously, I do feel for those who are in the path of nature's wrath and don't have the means to move -- even temporarily -- to safety. But when I see the clips on tv of the people in Jamaica who lived in shacks made of corrugated metal, I can find not one drop of sympathy, not a single one, for the owners of those luxury homes.

I do, however, feel sorry for the rest of us around the country who will be paying higher insurance premiums to cover the insurance companies' pay-outs to the owners of those unnecessary and foolish luxury homes built upon sand.


Tansy Gold, devout atheist who will admit Jesus may have had a valid point

[tlcandie]

21. Well, I live in Florida ...

west coast, but not in a flood zone! We are east of Highway 19! I'm not looking forward to the retribution of insurance companies. Already we are now left with only ONE insurance company, Citizens, through the state of Florida who will cover our homes.

This all came about, supposedly by sink holes, last year upon renewal and increased x2 here. While mine was suppose to increase by x3, some did see those types of increases. Someone I know already can't afford the insurance as it stands anymore and only has the structure insured and not contents.

Why are the poorer and middle class people paying for the RICH people's desire to have homes built on barrier islands, swamp lands or wherever it is not ecologically sound to build just because they can?

[Eye and Monkey]

16. I'll second that emotion

Federal bailout soon to be forthcoming, so they can rebuild the bridge and do it again.

The MacMillionaires would like to thank you in advance, for contributing to their Rebuilding Fund -
http://www.namebase.org/richnote.html

please note: Alot of folks were effected by this storm. Myself, I still have plywood on my windows that I have to take down tomorrow. The luxury homes on the barrier islands probably shouldn't be there to begin with. And if they are there, well, risk shouldn't be dished-off on other folks as it almost always is.

[Shallah Kali]

15. Jebbie shouldn't feel bad because of federal flood insurance

Like Porter Goss got for Captiva Island in 1999

Goss criticized over 1999 federal flood insurance bill
North Captiva homeowners eligible for flood insurance, thanks to Goss legislation in '99
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3145300,00.html

About 200 acres of the island had been included under a program begun in 1982 that prohibited certain barrier islands and parts of barrier islands from being covered by taxpayer-supported national flood insurance.

The North Captiva parcel wasn't in the original measure passed in 1982; it was added when the first President Bush reauthorized the program in 1990. As that point, the North Captiva parcel was excluded from the benefits of federal flood insurance, leaving property owners to fend for themselves in paying for any flood damages there.

Nine years later, North Captiva again qualified for federal flood insurance because of the Goss bill, making federal taxpayers responsible for storm surge damage on properties that were covered by flood insurance.

The 1999 exemption for one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in America brought criticism of Goss at the time, and it is doing so now after Category 4 Hurricane Charley made landfall on Upper Captiva before cutting a path through Punta Gorda and Central Florida.

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I heard this mentioned on Amy Goodman's show today. It is really insane to have our tax dollars cover houses built basically on the equal of quicksand. If anyone rich and stupid enough wants to do it let them do it on their own dime. They don't want poor folks helped by the government. Government spending is evil execpt when it helps them. Again in my :tinfoilhat: moments I remember how that mormom splinter group who likes to marry off girls barely past puberty to middleaged men talk about 'bleeding the beast' of government though welfare for the multiple wives.

Don't mind me I am paranoid :tinfoilhat:

[flordehinojos]

17. it will be the rest of us who will pay through our teeth in home insurance

so the rich can reconstruct their homes out in those barrier islands.

[booksenkatz]

19. Loss of new homes doesn't break my heart nearly as much as

the loss of buildings that have stood for years, that have a history attached to them. And often, such historic buildings are quite modest, they're not luxurious at all. But you'd first need a sense of history to give a shit about them, and we know that the Bushes have none. They're weeping over rich people's losses, as usual. Chances are, owners of luxury homes can rebuild more easily than can owners of shacks.

[quaker bill]

22. My guess is

That he was trying to make a contrast to manufactured housing and older buildings not up to the current (post-Andrew) hurricane building codes. These new buildings should theoretically be much harder for a hurricane to destroy. I agree that he did not state it in the most fortunate way.

I would cut the guy a bit of a break. An unfortunate number of people were killed and I am sure it is a major disaster or rich and poor alike. Jeb has spent alot of time in emergency operations centers of late.

Having been through the center of Charley and Frances personally, I can attest to a bit of hurricane fatigue.

[Kolesar]

24. Tomorrow, the bushies will be mourning the loss of off shore oil derricks

:evilgrin: