A single home is left standing among debris from Hurricane Ike September 14, 2008 in Gilchrist, Texas. Floodwaters from Hurricane Ike were reportedly as high as eight feet in some areas causing widespread damage across the coast of Texas. (Click on image to enlarge)
Hurricane Ike was a Category 2 storm when it hit Texas; what if it had hit as a Cat 4 or Cat 5?
In my blog from yesterday, I gave you five of my own photos showing destruction and flooding from Hurricane Wilma, a Category 1 Storm, which hit Key West back in October of 2005.
The purpose of my blog yesterday was to make people think before leaping into Key West Real Estate blindly. Indeed, as I pointed out, had Hurricane Ike hit Key West as a Category 3, 4, or 5 storm, Key West Real Estate would fall another 25% in prices overnight, in my opinion.
Think about this: everything which is built in the Florida Keys has to be built on stilts. In fact, Ed Swift, a developer of affordable modular housing built on stilts in Key West, has built his homes beyond Country specs using 150 MPH wind resistant windows, extra straps nailed to pylons, extra thick plyboard between houses for dampening effects, etc. Because of Ed's attention to detail, his homes only carry $1,500 of insurance costs per year - which is unheard of in any free market homes in this town.
Still . . . when you look at a photo of the lone Gilchrist, Texas home on stilts above, and you think about all the other homes washed off their stilts . . . you must pause and think, "How important to me is it to live right on the water?"
I'm not knocking Ed's construction. But I am passing along the photos of what Hurricane Ike did to houses right on the water some of which had seawall/dikes to kill the energy of the tidal surge waves, and some (such as the homes above built right on a beach) had nothing.
Just for the record: most homes built "on the water" in the Keys are on canals, or overlooking docks right on ocean. A1A has a new seawall which is about 2 feet above the highest tide of any year. On the other hand, Galveston had seawalls of 17 feet in height (in some areas) which Ike's Category 2 surge easily scaled. Please look at Photo #5 in the series you are about to view.
Photo #5 shows the huge strom swell of Ike breaching a tall seawall in front of a large area of homes built on stilts. Imagine what those homes would look like had there been no seawall to protect them. How many of you think all the houses in Photo #5 would still be here today . . . eventhough they were built on stilts . . . had there been no seawall to take the brunt of the ocean's force?
These photos are posted just to make you think. Here's the link of the excellent set of photos from the Boston Globe Newspaper.
View, ponder, and understand why insurance costs for flooding and wind are so damn high in Florida these days. Coastal cities in Texas and Louisiana will feel the newer, higher premiums which the Florida Keys already suffered after Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
As always, caveat emptor!
There's more than just mortgage payments when buying a house in the Florida Keys.
Feed your head,
Rock
7 comments:
Its very hard to see the hurricane destruction's in Texas,Louisiana and Cuba. Its surely the natural destruction and the collection posted by you is great.I hope it will not occur again.
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Ricky Conway
http://www.shepelskylaw.com
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