The foolish man built his house upon the sand and the rains came tumbling down.

I finally got around to reading yesterday's paper because mine was tossed in the bushes yesterday and I had to complain to get a new one. Yes, I have a paper box.

When I read the article about the approval of funds from FEMA for individuals to cover the damages during last week's storm, I was very surprised. I found that individuals could receive up to $32000 in the form of a "grant." I thought that government aid after a storm was in the form of low interest loans and not outright grants. I guess I was wrong.
The article talked about a lot of people over in Gulf Breeze that were going to apply for the grants, probably a lot on Bayou Boulevard and in Lake Charlene too.
I wonder if the eligibility for these grants is based on income in any way? The internet and radio has been deluged lately with angry citizens of Pensacola claiming Obama was holding up "their money" due to the politics of this region. They've been really impatient to get their FEMA bucks out of the government, even though a lot of our local citizenry decry others who receive free federal money every day. They hate Obama, they hate the government and especially all the government handouts. Yet right now, their hands are right there, extended into the air wanting their part of the loot. Some of these people were wise in purchasing flood insurance (also from the guv'mnt, btw) and it's good that they will be getting the money out of their own insurance policies. But apparently they were the fools. You didn't need to pay for an insurance policy because the guv'mnt is going to pay for your damages anyway. And what's more, they expect it. They're impatient about it. They cuss the president if it doesn't come fast enough.
I hope the grants are only given to people whose income makes it difficult for them to rebuild, but I know that's not true. Our taxes will be going out in $32,000 handouts to folks that could go into their 401K's and take care of their own disasters. And I don't like that one little bit.

I agree 100% that their insurance should pay..  If they didn't have insurance, too bad for them........
My insurance agent AND a FEMA investigator told me that a young female college student at UWF got a GRANT from Fema to rebuild her new house on Pensacola Beach following Ivan..  The house was less than 1 yr old and the student cancelled the insurance because of the high cost..  Our tax dollars rebuilt her house..  Supposedly after graduation, she sold the house for s BIG profit..  I do NOT know her or anyone involved, and it might just be something the agent and FEMA rep made up..

Jake92 wrote:

I agree 100% that their insurance should pay..  If they didn't have insurance, too bad for them........
My insurance agent AND a FEMA investigator told me that a young female college student at UWF got a GRANT from Fema to rebuild her new house on Pensacola Beach following Ivan..  The house was less than 1 yr old and the student cancelled the insurance because of the high cost..  Our tax dollars rebuilt her house..  Supposedly after graduation, she sold the house for s BIG profit..  I do NOT know her or anyone involved, and it might just be something the agent and FEMA rep made up..

I don't know if it was something they made up or not but I know that a lot of people on the beach got grants to rebuild their houses and they went ahead and rebuilt them on that dangerous sandbar anyway. My feeling is that if they've got money to live on the beach they'd better spend some of it on flood insurance instead of us taxpayers having to subsidize their rebuilding their houses.
I've noticed a lot of the pictures in the paper of furniture and things people were taking out to the curb and wondered how a solid wood dining room table could be so water damaged in one night that it couldn't be cleaned up and kept. If something warps in the water, I get it. Or if it's a cloth couch, I get it. But I wonder how many people are reporting things to the insurance companies in order to satisfy their deductables and get more money when they might be able to salvage a lot of things. I guess I sound like Scrooge but anytime there's a disaster there's a lot of cheating that goes on.

I do feel sorry for people who really got wiped out and have to make a huge insurance claim, but whether we like it or not, it's all going to affect the insurance rates of everybody here in Pensacola. Whether we have flood insurance or not, I'll guarantee you our homeowners will be going up again this year. They will use this as an excuse.

Right, they will raise the rates and still have record profits..

I'll bet the second-hand furniture people are finding a bonanza right on the curb... free of charge.