is nuts. The states should have never allowed that. After the homeowners' insurance pays them off, it should be declared an unbuildable area and purchased by the states for a barrier or a public beach. And not for some hugely inflated value, since it is worth little since it will happen again.

I suppose Mr. Westgard has some interesting solutions as to where to move New York City. We're not just talking about a few homes built on the dunes along the ocean.

Flood plain? Please google "Hurricane Sandy damage map" and ask yourself where one could move entire cities and populations to mitigate this type of disaster in the future.

I do agree with adding a federal gas tax of one dollar or more. Our nations bridges and highways could do with a little revamping.

Most of that damage was to New Jersey waterfront properties and low areas on Long Island and Staten Island, not all of New York City.
We have a similar situation with the exposed North Carolina Outer Banks.
Go ahead and build there; just don't expect the rest of us to cover you when the sea rises up.

Shouldn't government be responsible for their mistakes? Didn't permits need to be secured (bought) before building? Why should the owner take the hit when the property purchased met all the requirements for construction? Could this be a example of local government (Planing and Zoning) chasing the buck for the sake of feeding the system(tax base). Crow Wing County and Brainerd have done their best over the years of converting swamps into lake shore and filling wet lands to build parks and housing additions. Who will bale us out when our time comes if we don't help our neighbors out?

If you want real entertainment follow the process in the very beginning, the township level. Once the stamp of approval is inked, the process begins and the odds are against slowing or stopping decrease as it begins the trail through P & Z and ending at the County Board for final approval. On the other hand, if more property owners would take the time to attend their township meetings, their time would be better spent and avoid a lot of frustration and lost time.

That's a very smug response, Mr. Westgard. According to wikipedia:

"In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York. Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city.[12][13] Damage in the US is estimated at over $63 billion (2012 USD)."

Read further towards the middle of the page all states affected:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy

The amount of devastation is astounding, and more than just "damage ... to New Jersey waterfront properties" as you state. It is the height of arrogance to be as dismissive of the effects of this hurricane as you are.

hopes not! How else can he exist?

If your risk is so great that insurance companies won't insure you, don't build it.
As to hurricane power, the 1936 Florida Keys; 1969 Camille, and 1972 Andrew were all much more powerful than Sandy. There will be others; just stay out of their way.

Of course not, but the suggestion is that somehow that one can simply move thousands of miles worth of houses, businesses and people (dozens of miles? hundreds of miles?) inland to avert this sort of disaster in the future.

I was merely suggesting that one can't know exactly where a storm will strike in the future, and simply moving a few houses from the dunes would have done little to avert this sort of damage. The magnitude of this thing was breathtaking.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and we can smugly suggest afterwards where businesses and houses shouldn't have been, but the scope of this storm was so broad and devastating that the worst damage was inescapable even with the moves simplistically suggested by Mr. Westgard.

Ask yourself, where do you propose we move tens of millions of people, homes and businesses? Kansas? Nebraska? Minnesota? Do we leave a fifty mile ring of no-man's-land all the way from Texas to Maine?

Oh, then we have to worry about tornado season!

How do island countries survive with annual hurricanes? You would think that eventually everything not rooted into the ground would be swept into the ocean. Yet, they do survive, hurricane after hurricane.

Yes raise the gasoline tax... That won't affect the middle and lower classes right? $5 gas and $5 a gallon milk or higher anyone? I suppose if you read someone's earlier story we don't need milk anyways, but at least our roads and bridges will be fixed, just won't have people that can afford to drive on them.

But I thought they only wanted to tax the super rich not the rest of us? Oh darn how I hate when I point out the liberal lies...

Let's declare armistice in Afghanistan and bring home the troops. Then retrain those who are jobless to repair our bridges and roads. Why repair and pour money into a country which does not benefit us or want us there?

Excellent idea. We have troops deployed in more than 150 countries around the world! We account for almost half of the world's spending on the military.

It's time to stop making bombs and start building bridges.

the 47% that don't pay federal income taxes and fredanderssen make up the difference!