GerryMandering and Drainage

[Honky Tonk]

On June 3 Richard posted a helpful article from Kiplinger.
It states that one can obtain federal flood insurance, there
is a website for it, and that June is a good month for purchasing
flood insurance since there is a 30 day waiting period after
obtaining coverage and flooding tends to happen more
often in the months after June.


https://www.floodsmart.gov/

Well I just checked out the maps for Detroit and Warren on
the site and they are not very current. The areas in Detroit
and Warren that I looked at were described as having
minimal flood hazard though, so that may mean the
insurance would not be so expensive.

I'm sure after your post they'll be flooded with applications.

[O3H]

Ask the folks who were repeatedly flooded if their homes are on the map
-- most are NOT -- the maps are basically crap. Parasitic Insurance Agent

People have flooding, the city, county, state and USA government
say oh well, buy insurance, that's the way it is.

Nice Planning Departments, huh ? Civil Engineering failures

Gerrymandering just adds to the insane chaos...........

[Dumpling]

Your point is well taken, very few if any are going to get flood
insurance just from reading my post. But, posting refined my
own ideas about whether to ask about flood insurance when I
talk to an agent about a new auto insurance policy in a week or
two [[the probable yearly savings from that is $600 so it's worth
my trouble) and whether it should be purchased for only six
months of a year [[actually March 31st looks like the best time
to buy six months worth of flood insurance here in Detroit,
rather than June, though June is not too bad since August
would be covered). Two of my basement appliances are quite
new and expensive. Another three are ancient and either aren't
working or are working through divine intervention somehow.
There really isn't much chance of a Rouge River tributary
overflowing into my basement but there could be a sewage
backup from a severe rain event. It hasn't happened to me
so far. It has happened to others on my block.

[Dumpling]

The previous was for my own benefit and edification.
Right now, if someone's basement is trashed from a sewage
backup, one can file a claim with the local water utility
for the damages.

Free Press article on what happened after previous
instances of severe flooding:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...aims/93309016/

Effectively, the 11 million paid out here was taken from monies
paid in by ratepayers of either DWSD or GLWA [[financed by bond
issuers depending on your point of view) so this is a current
operating expense of DWSD/GLWA.

[Dumpling]

The DWSD spokesperson was saying that if too much rain
comes down at once, that overwhelms the sewage system
capacity and that therefore DWSD cannot be held responsible
for flood damage in those cases.

The overall disaster payouts needed to be in the 10 million to
50 million range per rain event. Taking it as the higher number and
taking it as annually, that is, we are expecting that the damages
from overwhelming rainstorms will be 50 million per year, what
should a special assessment [[part of a drainage fee or sewerage
bill) be that would pay these damages, and how much would
a special assessment be to upgrade the system so basement
flooding would never occur.

[Dumpling]

$50,000,000 basement cleanup payout amount annually
divided by 3,000,000 persons in the region receiving
sewerage services = $17 per capita per year so a monthly
payment of $1.50 per capita should be enough to handle a
large portion of the costs and labor of basement flooding
cleanouts.

At a slightly higher monthly charge there can be administration
for this that would basically be insurance company procedures,
though those can be improved upon. A ratepayer can keep
an itemized list of possessions in the basement in advance
on file and preferred contractors in advance on file so part
or all of the disaster payments can be made in a very timely
manner, no waiting around for two months or six months or
two years.

[Dumpling]

Our water/sewer billing system is too not well set up for this
right now. It should be a separate specific charge, it should
have an opt-out option, and have its own "area" - app or
website or information that people would get in the mail
updating them about it.

[Richard]

^ they will just say,if you live in a flood zone and are repeatedly flooded,jack your house above the flood level or move,or no insurance for you.

I would be storing my most valued possessions in the basement even the stuff that I do not have, if there was that quick and easy payout,and so would everybody else.

You will only be able to claim so many times before nobody will carry you insurance wise.

If you are calculating 50 million per incident,no way they are going to pay out that repetitive,4 incidents a month at 100 million,it’s cheaper to buy everybody out and demolish for green space or runoff storage.

I agree with the backflow sewage preventer and think it should be mandatory,I redid a house one time where the owners were out of the country,sewer line backed up in the street and none of the neighbors noticed it because everytime they flushed it went directly into his house.

Imagine coming back to a house that was a raw sewage collection point for twenty of your neighbors for over a week,it stinks.

[O3H]

City planners for 2020+ need an epiphany.

Every open lot, field, meadow, is expected to be developed. Old zoning laws are dismissed, in favor of “variances”. It makes somebody wonder why are zoning laws existing, just to have them tossed, and reconfigured, in search of revenue dollars.


Once the asphalt and concrete are put on top of the grass/dirt, the rain gets forced into the stormdrain system. This development scenario happened at an alarming rate – while the archaic stormwater system underground stayed the same for 1/2 a century.


The stop gap, band aid fix, of building retention basins for sewage disposal, was outgrown almost before it was completed. Once built, it became an albatross around the neck of those stuck with Bond Payments for several decades

Warren will build a Retention Basin - Why ?
Because it would NOT pay the fees to tap into the OMID.
The state is forcing The City of Warren ""to do something""
I'll bet on the basin overflowing soon after being built.