After years without a blockbuster hurricane, Florida’s insurance funds are looking solid. But a controversial shakeup is raising eyebrows, and a heavy storm season could still bring trouble.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is ready to step up its Sandy rebuilding program with a reorganized effort called “NYC Build It Back.”
Tropical Storm Andrea did little damage in its rainy rush up the East Coast. But the storm is a reminder that hurricane season seems to be getting longer.
Owners of vacation or investment houses on the shore aren’t on FEMA’s list for post-Sandy financial aid. But they are on the list of houses that have to be elevated — now.
Storm surge flooding can be a hurricane’s most dangerous threat, but shore dwellers often don’t appreciate the risk. Now the government hopes to make those risks more clear.
Northeast states are still feeling the after-effects of last year’s late-season Hurricane Sandy. But this year’s hurricane season starts next week — and authorities say it could be an active one.
Federal authorities have approved hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to help New York State buy out homeowners in threatened shore areas. But most storm victims would rather rebuild.
Homeowners in Louisiana’s fragile delta are living outside the Federal levee system — and with FEMA policy changing, they’re worried about the future.
Richard Schifter’s house-with-a-view sits on a beautiful Nantucket bluff. But the ocean isn’t bluffing — and now the cliff is crumbling under Schifter’s footings. So Schifter is hedging his investment and moving the giant house back from the edge of destruction — swimming pool and all.
On the New Jersey shore, well-off beachfront owners are fighting dune construction by public authorities. In New York, the situation is reversed: big-house owners are building their own dunes, over the objections of other townsfolk. The fight is less about the view than about the question: Who owns...
The New York Times takes a look at the effort by homeowners in the Hurricane Sandy impact area to elevate their houses.
Battered by hurricanes and nor’easters, N.C. 12—the Outer Banks’ fragile lifeline—is on life support.
An Inspector General report says more than half a billion dollars in Hurricane Katrina relief money may have been misspent. Most Katrina victims who were awarded $30,000 apiece to elevate their houses never documented that the work was done.
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Congress authorized funding for Hurricane Sandy emergency relief in January. But the actual money hasn’t started flowing yet.
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From small-time scams to major misappropriation of relief money, government is on the lookout for crooked use of rebuilding funds.