General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGreenwich Stilt Houses Foreshadow Impact of New FEMA Maps
In the coastal areas of Greenwich, Connecticut, the latest housing craze requires hydraulic jacks, pylons and stilts. One home towers over its neighbors like a cruise ship. Others look like expensive tree houses.
People are stopping in to ask us about it, said Patrick Grasso, 59, a resident of the hedge fund enclave who jacked up his 1920s waterfront house about 3 feet (1 meter). People want to know how long did it take and how much did it cost.
Ten months after Hurricane Sandy, Greenwich is among the first U.S. municipalities to adopt revised flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that predict fiercer waves and higher storm surges. In doing so, the town has fallen in line with a federal initiative meant to thin the density of low-lying coastal populations, prepare for more damaging weather and reduce rebuilding costs borne by taxpayers.
The maps add as much as 5 feet to previous predictions of how high the waters of Long Island Sound would rise during a 100-year storm like Sandy. Starting next year, homes in surge areas across the country wont qualify for flood-insurance rates based on the old maps. That means some homeowners will face a choice between paying as much as $150,000 to raise their houses or accepting premium increases as high as $20,000 a year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-19/greenwich-stilt-houses-foreshadow-impact-of-new-fema-maps.html
longship
(40,416 posts)Myself. I would install an escalator.
Not sure I see the point in this. If you live in an endangered area and you have the money to do this silly thing, why don't you move to a less endangered one?
Seems like yet another stupid thing, like my car is jacked up higher than yours!
Yet another idiocy.
Atman
(31,464 posts)The residents in question are complying with (perhaps heeding is a better choice of words) new high-water predictions for such coastal areas.
You say it is silly and that they should just move. Do you have any idea what houses cost in Greenwich, CT? If you lived there, "up to $150,000" to jack up your house would be a small price. Most likely the two cars in your three car garage are worth that much.
Also, it's worth noting that the house used as an example was 1920's era. That is not uncommon in this area. Many of these places are not just "houses," but some family's long-time estate. Probably paid for several times over. You're not just walking away from that if you can otherwise afford to fix a problem staring you in the face.
The article states flood insurance would not even be available under the old flood maps, and that new insurance premiums could increase by $20,000. Again, a drop in the bucket for most of these residents, but what good is the insurance if your 100 year old family estate is washed away by a storm surge?
I think your jacked-up car analogy is ridiculous. Greenwich features some pretty incredible real estate, and to expect people to just move when they can instead afford to take necessary precautions is as unrealistic as the thought of you or I being able to move in to one of these homes.
Dustlawyer
(10,493 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)the beach you enjoy, and "most of the time" it's fine, but your insurance bill will be twenty grand a year to pay for that oddlot storm, I can see doing it.
A house on stilts sees the water come in, the water go out...and life goes on. They aren't jacking the houses up like cars, they're jacking them up to keep them out of the flood waters.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)When the streets flooded, it only surged under and house and to the back yard and then left when the water went down. No damage to the house or anything essential.
The whole neighborhood was built that way. The newer houses on slabs were out of luck. I've seen this in flood prone areas before, a lot of people live within the 100 year flood plain. A hundred years ago they seemed to take this more into account. Now they put houses on ground level.
Not sure how high the tides were, though, or if they got to that area. And that is a wonderful home, and probably worth more than $150K in a location like that. The property looks very good.
LuvNewcastle
(16,820 posts)since Katrina. It's the only way many of them can get insurance, and the insurance is still outrageous. Of course, there are some who can't get insured at all. Many of them aren't even near any water. It's one thing to have a vacation house on the waterfront, but it's getting to the point where people shouldn't have their primary residence right on the ocean. There are exceptions, such as places on the west coast that are built on land which is high above the sea level, but it's just too risky to build permanent homes right on the beach.
liberal N proud
(60,302 posts)From Florida, to North Carolina, they have been building this way for some time.
This house is just such a dwelling, the ground level becomes extra space with the realization that it could flood.
This one is in North Carolina
freshwest
(53,661 posts)It was in a neighborhood of such on Galveston Island. I have a relative who was down there in a house on a slab in a new subdivision. Last storm ruined everything.
With structures like that one, the area underneath for parking and storing moveable items. The piers holding up the houses go down deep. If a hurricane was coming the plan was to take the vehicle to higher ground.
Not that much different than the old style garage apartments in town.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)In Greenwich, home to hedge funds including Tudor Investment Corp., AQR Capital Management and Traxis Partners, the median value of a house is almost $1 million and many are at risk. Tougher standards were adopted for 20 percent of the residences in the Old Greenwich section. The neighborhood, which hugs the sound, is the nations 11th wealthiest zip code, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Ekvalls, whose property was assessed at $816,690 before the renovation, spent more than $300,000 on the project. They drilled steel pins through the muck below and then lifted the house onto stilts. In the next major flood, water will be able to flow under the house like a river below a bridge.
The elevation, while expensive, sent their flood insurance down to $458 year. Had they not raised the house, it would have been 6 feet below the new required height and their annual flood-insurance cost would have soared next year to $5,500, she said.
However, when the rest of the new FEMA maps of flood plain areas go into effect next year, whole communities of not-very-wealthy/working class/middle class people will see their insurance rates skyrocket.Under the new FEMA maps, homes more than 4 feet below flood levels may see premiums jump to $10,700 a year from $3,600, according to data provided by the agency. In some cases, annual insurance will rise to $23,150 a year, according to Resources for the Future, a Washington-based group studying the effects of the changes..
The looming increases stem from a law passed by Congress last year to shore up finances at the National Flood Insurance Program. The system owes $24 billion to the U.S. Treasury, according to FEMA
The point is to shift the financial burden of waterfront living to homeowners. Subsidizing homeowners via the National Flood Insurance Program has resulted in the $24 billion debt and, as environmentalists argue, leads to development in sensitive areas likely to flood.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Those payments did not even go through the NFIP. People with super homes on coastal islands got new homes, new streets, and new beaches paid for by the public.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)By subsidizing risk, we are encouraging people to build in areas they shouldnt build and putting that on the taxpayers, said R.J. Lehmann, a senior fellow at R Street Institute, a Washington-based research organization.
It is a wrenching process, but as we see sea levels rise and as we see global warming, we are going to see more of this, said Lehmann, who helped write the law sponsored by Representatives Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, and Judy Biggert, an Illinois Republican.
Lehmann said the legislation was backed by fiscal conservatives who want to shift the financial burden of waterfront living to homeowners from all taxpayers, and environmentalists who say cheap flood insurance leads to development in sensitive areas.
...
Bill Bubrig, a 47-year-old insurance agent who lives in Belle Chasse, Louisiana,...(is) lobbying for change. This summer he traveled to Washington on a mission to halt the insurance increases with a new group based in New Orleans called the Coalition for Sustainable Flood Insurance.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for a $20 billion system of flood barriers to protect low-lying areas from storms almost eight months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the region.
Bloomberg last year appointed a task force to assess the citys vulnerability after Sandy brought a record 14-foot (4.3-meter) storm surge to Lower Manhattan in October. It flooded seven subway tunnels, immersed electrical substations, shut down the financial district and killed power south of 35th Street. All five boroughs bore its brunt in the city of 8 million.
In a report released today, the mayor made 250 recommendations, including installing bulkheads and dune systems on beach areas of Staten Island and the Rockaways in Queens, and bolstering building codes to protect hospitals. He cited environmental scientists who predict sea levels rising as much as 31 inches by 2050, accompanied by severe storms and prolonged spells of extreme heat and cold.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-11/bloomberg-proposes-20-billion-new-york-flood-plan-after-sandy.html
It's one thing if you have a vacation property on which you can afford to eventually take a total loss. But if your primary home is in one of the recently expanded flood plains (and please, blame global climate change for that - not FEMA), I urge you to do what I've been preaching to family and friends for years. Sell it while you can still find some climate change denying idiot to buy it. If you have to stay in the area for work or other reasons, become a renter. Dog knows there are many foreclosed properties which have been turned into rental properties.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Good info on metro-NYC, there
Something tells me that "Far Rockaway" is ultimately doomed, though.