Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Cuomo Bows to Mother Nature

By ELEANOR RANDOLPH
January 24, 2013, 3:32 pm

New York has yet to receive an estimated $30 billion from Washington for Hurricane Sandy relief, but Governor Andrew Cuomo already knows one way he plans to spend it. He said in a meeting with The Times editorial board on Wednesday that he wants the state to discourage the building and rebuilding, and then rebuilding, of unsafe houses on New York’s vast and vulnerable shoreline.

“There are some parcels that Mother Nature owns,“ he said earlier this month in his official State of the State speech. “She may only visit once every few years, but she owns the parcel and when she comes to visit, she visits.”

To deal with such intrusions, the governor wants to give homeowners in these areas a choice. New York will help them rebuild a better house — on stilts, for example, higher than future floodwaters. Or they can sell what’s left of their homes to the state and move to higher ground.

Details of his proposal — called the Recreate NY-Smart Home program — are still being worked out, and it is hard to say how many New Yorkers will take him up on his offer to relocate. It is also hard to know how much money Mr. Cuomo will be able to spend per house, since this program will be part of a larger Sandy package that includes protecting subways and utilities and creating a fuel reserve to manage future gas lines.

As public officials talk about rebuilding and restoring what Sandy destroyed, however, Mr. Cuomo is one of the few making a vital and difficult argument—there’s no point in going back to the status quo ante. It’s better to accept that some areas aren’t suitable for housing.

The problem may be timing. Many homeowners have already begun patching and painting, hoping — against available evidence — that Sandy really was a 100-year storm.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/cuomo-bows-to-mother-nature/?hp