On the cusp of the election today, I experienced on a personal level yet one more example of high-handed big brother at work. Upon my return from visiting with Mom in Salt Lake I had two registered letters waiting for me. The first was my annual summons to Federal District Court Jury Duty. This is the fourth year in a row. I wish they would simply call me so that I can be done with it for a while. Every Friday for a month I have to check in to see if they want me to report; and if I get called to report in then I have to travel to Tucson for a day to sit through questions to find out if I have been selected. For four years now I have been called to work my way through this drill only to be non-selected. Enough is enough, either call or be done with it.
The second letter was from our friends at FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Reform Act. It seems that some pin-head has just completed a study that declares that my house resides in a flood zone. What really makes it curious is my flood zone is rated at the same level of risk (read higher insurance premiums) as New Orleans. In other words, the pin-head that did this study thinks that my house has the same probability of being submerged as the homes in New Orleans that sit below sea level.
Think about that!
My house sits somewhere between 4,500 ft and 5,000 feet above sea level. We’re about 5 miles from the San Pedro River, the nearest body of water, and at an elevation of several 100 feet above the river level.
Now I am aware that some areas in Arizona are subject to seasonal sheet flooding. The last house we owned over on the Kendal Lane (aka, Kendal River) did have a problem as shown in the attached picture. This was taken about 15 minutes after a monsoon rain storm 3 years ago. The house was high and dry, but the road that was about 4 feet lower elevation than the house as you can see became a river. In the picture I’m standing in the middle of the road. THAT’S WHY I SOLD THE HOUSE AND MOVED!
This house, the one we’re in now has no such problem. This was the wettest year we’ve had in over ten years and we had no issue with water here. So here’s how my day went. I first called my insurance company, USAA, to find out what this was going to cost me. Before they would tell me how much they first made sure that I understood that I would pay the same rate no matter where I went because our good friends at FEMA have “fixed” the rates nation wide. When I finally got a rate out of them I was told that the rate would be $4,665 per year. You got it, over $388 per month. And the continuing good news is that the first years premium had to be paid in full up front, then the monthly rate could magnanimously be added to my escrow account on a monthly basis for subsequent years; lucky me!
Further research on my part, not volunteered information, was that if I took a $5,000 deductible (I pay the first 5 grand in the event of a claim) I could reduce the rate to $3,500 per year, same payment policy for initial year and follow-on as previously stated. Digging deeper I found that you could hire a surveyor to do an “Elevation Certification” for $400 and “maybe” get your rate reduced some more. The idea being that if you are able to demonstrate that the your ground floor was sufficiently higher that grade elevation to mitigate the risk of any flooding you might get a rate reduction. Digging further and presenting the fact that I have experience in survey work I discovered that anybody can self-certify their property if you down-load from the FEMA web-site the Elevation Certification form.
So I did that and turned in the signed Elevation Certification Form and then called my Insurance Company back to verify their receipt of the form by email. They had received it and were able to refigure my annual rate right then. By completing the form I was able to reduce the rate down to $613 per year, a $4,052 overall reduction from my initial quote.
Think about that! In just a few hours I was able to reduce my quote by over $4,052 a year. Had I not been a suborn, insistent, and demanding guy our government would have bilked me out of $4,052. Upon Leora’s return from work I discovered that the government is doing the same think to us with respect to our second house that the Tingey’s live in. The only difference is that the starting price is $1,500 per year. I now have to go through that drill for their house.
That got me thinking. What’s prompting this insanity? Then it came to me. This is how our government is propping up insurance company losses over New Orleans, Houston, and related coastal areas that have been wiped out by hurricanes in the last few years. In lieu of abandoning areas that we know are going to flood year after year; the answer is to spread the cost, notice I said cost, not risk, spread the cost of coastal flood damage across the whole nation. As it turns out, my share in this insanity has been determined to be $613 every year; aren’t I lucky? I suspect that this is just another Democratic attempt to “spread the wealth”; in reality, another model for taking money away from those who earned it and have enough sense to not live in a flood zone and give it to the idiots that don’t know enough to move out of a flood zone once they discover that they’re in one. I figured it out, and I moved out. Why shouldn’t I expect the same from them?
The second letter was from our friends at FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Reform Act. It seems that some pin-head has just completed a study that declares that my house resides in a flood zone. What really makes it curious is my flood zone is rated at the same level of risk (read higher insurance premiums) as New Orleans. In other words, the pin-head that did this study thinks that my house has the same probability of being submerged as the homes in New Orleans that sit below sea level.
Think about that!
My house sits somewhere between 4,500 ft and 5,000 feet above sea level. We’re about 5 miles from the San Pedro River, the nearest body of water, and at an elevation of several 100 feet above the river level.
Now I am aware that some areas in Arizona are subject to seasonal sheet flooding. The last house we owned over on the Kendal Lane (aka, Kendal River) did have a problem as shown in the attached picture. This was taken about 15 minutes after a monsoon rain storm 3 years ago. The house was high and dry, but the road that was about 4 feet lower elevation than the house as you can see became a river. In the picture I’m standing in the middle of the road. THAT’S WHY I SOLD THE HOUSE AND MOVED!
This house, the one we’re in now has no such problem. This was the wettest year we’ve had in over ten years and we had no issue with water here. So here’s how my day went. I first called my insurance company, USAA, to find out what this was going to cost me. Before they would tell me how much they first made sure that I understood that I would pay the same rate no matter where I went because our good friends at FEMA have “fixed” the rates nation wide. When I finally got a rate out of them I was told that the rate would be $4,665 per year. You got it, over $388 per month. And the continuing good news is that the first years premium had to be paid in full up front, then the monthly rate could magnanimously be added to my escrow account on a monthly basis for subsequent years; lucky me!
Further research on my part, not volunteered information, was that if I took a $5,000 deductible (I pay the first 5 grand in the event of a claim) I could reduce the rate to $3,500 per year, same payment policy for initial year and follow-on as previously stated. Digging deeper I found that you could hire a surveyor to do an “Elevation Certification” for $400 and “maybe” get your rate reduced some more. The idea being that if you are able to demonstrate that the your ground floor was sufficiently higher that grade elevation to mitigate the risk of any flooding you might get a rate reduction. Digging further and presenting the fact that I have experience in survey work I discovered that anybody can self-certify their property if you down-load from the FEMA web-site the Elevation Certification form.
So I did that and turned in the signed Elevation Certification Form and then called my Insurance Company back to verify their receipt of the form by email. They had received it and were able to refigure my annual rate right then. By completing the form I was able to reduce the rate down to $613 per year, a $4,052 overall reduction from my initial quote.
Think about that! In just a few hours I was able to reduce my quote by over $4,052 a year. Had I not been a suborn, insistent, and demanding guy our government would have bilked me out of $4,052. Upon Leora’s return from work I discovered that the government is doing the same think to us with respect to our second house that the Tingey’s live in. The only difference is that the starting price is $1,500 per year. I now have to go through that drill for their house.
That got me thinking. What’s prompting this insanity? Then it came to me. This is how our government is propping up insurance company losses over New Orleans, Houston, and related coastal areas that have been wiped out by hurricanes in the last few years. In lieu of abandoning areas that we know are going to flood year after year; the answer is to spread the cost, notice I said cost, not risk, spread the cost of coastal flood damage across the whole nation. As it turns out, my share in this insanity has been determined to be $613 every year; aren’t I lucky? I suspect that this is just another Democratic attempt to “spread the wealth”; in reality, another model for taking money away from those who earned it and have enough sense to not live in a flood zone and give it to the idiots that don’t know enough to move out of a flood zone once they discover that they’re in one. I figured it out, and I moved out. Why shouldn’t I expect the same from them?
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3 comments:
Sounds like Obamanomics to me, but have no fear because "if" Obama wins and the Dumbycraps take over the senate and the house all of our problems will be solved. (notice the sarcasm)
Obama spreading the wealth:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/Borug/acanofpepsi2.gif
That's crazy! You should contact the local newspaper about that. I bet they did that to everyone in town. I bet there are a lot of little old ladys that will end up having to pay that just because they don't know any better. What a scam!
We shouldn't have to pay for the idiots that continue to live in flood zones. I have no pity for them.
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