Well ,it's been 15 months since my area was wiped out by Irene, I need to tell you survivors( The ones who will stay and rebuild) What you can expect as it is happening here .
The economic boom will be for lumber yards and some contractors who's customers were insured.
For those in areas where homeowners were not insured or underinsured, you will find that volunteers from all aver the country will be there to clean up damage to property. But it doesn't stop there , they will basically if you can wait long enough, rebuild allot of the damage to damaged homes. Sounds good for the uninsured, but these volunteers will be with you for at least a year, and then those who can afford to have the work done by a professional contractor will think that they can get their work done for nothing,leaving local contractors in the cold ,watching what would have been a job that would contribute the local economic redevelopment, be given to church groups that would not only do the labor for free, they also get materials trucked in from an outside source,not locally, further unstimulating your local economy.
FEMA... will be offering buyouts on properties. people , when FEMA buys any property anywhere, it turns into public land. Doesn't matter if it was the house next door to you, it'll be public land, never again saleable, buildable, or taxable. These properties can only become parking lots or some sort of park and your township will own it.
Well that's alright you might say,that property can quickly become something that you can't live next to. But that isn't the point! That property along with all other buyout properties will not be taxed , meaning, you and your community will have to cover the taxes for local and county infrastructure, forever. And that vacant lot next door isn't contributing a dime.
FEMA may pay your neighbor up to 75% of the value of their property, Your township and county is broke and cannot afford to match FEMA's offer, of course they can't! But also cannot afford to have these properties off the tax role. It's a Catch 22. Ultimately , you will find by next year just how much money was spent for cleanup, repair of infrastructure, overtime , blah blah blah, and the feds will contribute some disaster relief money to your local municipalities and county government, and everyone will be glad to get it......
And then reality sets in, even though disaster relief has offset some of the bite that would make your local governments broke today. It will take them a little time to figure out that once that check was cashed, the taxbase is no longer large enough to cover the cost of day to day functions....and your properties will be reevaluated and at a higher price per thousand. You may find 'like we are finding, you may have survived the water but you may not have survived the flood.
If you plan on staying, the only way that we figured out to save ourselves (only too late for us but not you) is to band your community, maybe a few neighbors whatever you can do, and make sure that those properties in jeopardy are purchased by you and not FEMA. You can resell those properties later and keep them on the tax roll now even if it is vacant and taxed as such, because where ever you live, people will want to live there , especially after things are back to normal, and you will be able to sell it ,or build on it and sell it, or just consider it an expensive expansion to your yard, whatever ,it'll give you options.
These are the kind of things to think about as right now you and your neighbors are a tight group, bonded by this storm, and this discussion needs to happen before you all go back into your homes and never seem to find the time to talk about this, until the Town meetings ,when everyone is red in the face and unapproachable. TALK ABOUT THIS STUFF NOW!!!
I say this to all of you, We survived Irene, we rebuilt after Irene, We were so busy with our own need to survive and get back to normal now, that we couldn't foresee what else could drive us from our homes. We never considered unsellable land and out of control property tax caused by FEMA buyouts. If you are reading this ,now you know ,now tell all your friends and local government, find the solution, survive this, and do it soon.
