||| FROM BLOOMBERG NEWS |||
“The situation has sent powerful tremors through the American homeowners market”
Originally reported by Bloomberg News
“Americans keep building in risky areas. As home values in these locations rise, so will insurance rates. After all, it’s the industry’s job to signal risk, not subsidize it.”
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This is truly important information.
Thank-you for republishing it, Lin.
We must take the increasing hazards that are linked to a warming climate seriously:
Wildfire risk reduction is top of my mind.
But our county also needs to limit inappropriate development along vulnerable shorelines and in unstable, landslide-prone areas.
There is a new development near the Orcas Ferry Landing that looks really scary to me.
It has incorporated massive amounts of fill behind tall retaining walls.
My daughter is a civil engineer.
She and her team at the World Bank have recently created guidelines for reducing risks from flooding, landslides and earthquakes.
Fill and soft soils are much more unstable than our natural rocky areas.
If the drainage is not perfect, the fill can become saturated with water during heavy rain events.
This can result in a landslide.
Fill is also much more vulnerable to earthquake damage.
If I were an insurer, I would absolutely deny coverage for that new development near the Orcas Ferry Landing.