Florida Hurricanes, Ron DeSantis and Development Politics and Economic Policy Formation ~~ dmorista

~~ written by dmorista ~~

Ten Years ago: 

“Newly elected to Congress in 2013, DeSantis voted against a federal relief package for New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Sandy hit the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states in late 2012, killing more than 100 Americans.   

“Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also voted against the hurricane relief in 2013,  ….

“Republicans at the time of the vote in the House had argued the measure was costly and should be offset with other spending cuts. The final House vote was 241-180, with 179 of the ‘no’ votes coming from the GOP.”  (See, “NY public officials criticize DeSantis for voting against Hurricane Sandy relief”, Sep 29, 2022, Julia Shapero, The Hill, at < https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3667755-ny-public-officials-criticize-desantis-for-voting-against-hurricane-sandy-relief/ >  

Now, yet another powerful hurricane is heading towards Florida.  Exactly what will happen when it makes landfall is not yet clear.  But the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are very warm and that will strengthen the storm as it heads north up along the Gulf Coast of Florida.

The subsidies that have been lavished on Florida, and other Sunbelt regions, have amounted to Trillions of Dollars.  These areas are all much more prone to natural disasters and the Federal Government is constantly tapped for disaster relief and rebuilding subsidies.

The time has come to start requiring that property owners in disaster areas, in highly disaster prone regions, be required to move out of those disaster prone regions as a condition of receiving the Federal monies.  The vulnerabilities of the Gulf Coast and South Atlantic Coast will only increase with the expected Sea Level Rise.  

As Tristan Snell, a former assistant attorney general for New York noted in The Hill article: “What absolute hypocrites. Florida should get all the help it needs, but Florida also deserves better leaders.”  After yet another decade of expensive bailouts, while the vicious Republicans are pushing children off of Medicaid and accusing Democrats of being “Sexual Groomers”, the time has come to respond with serious changes in how at least the Federal Government subsidizes development.  If people want to continue living in disaster prone regions they should do so on their own dime.  

Some analysts think that 3 feet of Sea Level Rise is possible by mid-century.  Below is a map that shows “vulnerability zones” as defined by NOAA’s mapping program.  Once serious Sea Level Rise begins to be felt, more than the tiny effects we have seen so far, the subsidies needed to maintain the sort of development we currently have in the region will grow astronomically.