As flood damage from storms swells, a growing, controversial call to buy out homeowners - wgbh.org
As flood damage from storms swells, a growing, controversial call to buy out homeowners - wgbh.org As flood damage from storms swells, a growing, controversial call to buy out homeowners - wgbh.org Posted: 07 Feb 2015 12:00 AM PST The owner of 48 Oceanside Drive had just repaired her $1 million vacation home from a devastating 2013 storm when the Atlantic came crashing through a giant picture window last month. The Jan. 26 blizzard marked at least the 10th time the house has been damaged in four decades — and probably the 10th time it will be rebuilt, in part with taxpayer dollars. Scituate is the front line in New England's expensive, losing battle against the sea. The coastal town, with few offshore barriers to curb a storm's fury, accounts for nearly 40 percent of Massachusetts' homes and businesses that are so flood-prone the federal government calls them "severe repetitive loss" properties. Nearly all of these es...