People from up North and the Mid West move to the Carolina’s, other Southern states and Florida….
It’s cheaper….
Less rules and regulations….
Less building regulations…..
It’s all good until?
It isn’t…..
In Florida, the full extent of the destruction from Ian, which made its first U.S. landfall near Fort Myers as a Category 4 storm, is still unclear. But it is expected to be more devastating than many comparable stormsbecause of its size and all that was built in its path. From 1970 to 2020, census records show, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area grew an astounding 623 percent, to more than 760,000 people.
Ian came ashore in Florida as one of the strongest storms ever to strike the state, causing a storm surge of over 12 feet in Fort Myers, and knocking out power to more than 2 million people. The southwest suffered widespread destruction, with houses washed off their foundations, bridges destroyed and massive flooding.
From 2010 to 2020, census records show, the top two fastest-growing metro areas in the United States were The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Over that same period, the rate of population growth in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee exceeded the national average while other states like West Virginia and Mississippi saw declines. Florida’s population grew at an astonishing pace over that decade, adding more than 2.7 million people….
…
Realtors aren’t required to disclose the flood history of the properties they sell and finding that information can be difficult. In addition, many of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps are decades out of date and don’t account for sea level rise or flooding from sudden rain storms. Earlier this year, the agency announced it was considering reforms to these policies, as well as its flood insurance program, but it has yet to release a proposal….
…
Gavin Smith, an expert in disaster resilience at North Carolina State University, said poorer cities, especially those whose tax base has already been eroded by cascading disasters, have struggled to put together applications for federal grants to strengthen fragile infrastructure. Residents interested in federal buyouts sometimes have to wait years for FEMA approval. And many communities are reluctant to take action at all.
With Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law last month, expected to send billions of dollars to coastal states for climate projects, “there is possibility,” Smith said. “Time will tell if it’s unrealized potential or if there’s going to be a more wholesale shift.”….