FEMA Tells Monroe, WA Mobile Home Residents To Move

Just a couple of quick notes here:

• If you choose to live in a flood plain, that is a bad decision on your part.  Why do you expect the U.S. taxpayer to pay for your bad decisions?
• We have spider-web like planning commissions, boundary-review boards, boards of adjustment, zoning ordinances, permitting procedures, and other bureaucratic hoops to jump through to before ever building any type of home at city, county, and state levels of government.  How do homes ever get built in a flood plain to begin with?
• Why do local governments expect a Federal agency to come to their aid, after allowing homes to be built in a flood plain?

About 100 people live in a mobile home park on the Snohomish River in Monroe.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency is telling them they need to move.  The mobile homes are in an area that floods EVERY year.

Developers should exercise some responsibility and not build in flood prone areas.  The local government has a responsibility to exercise some common sense before allowing said developers to build in flood prone areas.

Why in the world is the United States Government involved in what is clearly a LOCAL issue???

Folks, we don’t need Uncle Sam to take care of us.  Given FEMA’s track record on emergency response, why would anyone want their assistance?

We can make decisions for ourselves.  If we make bad decisions, we should not expect someone else’s tax dollars to pay for our mistakes.  We need to take responsibility for our own personal decisions, as well as our own local government decisions.

The federal government offers flood insurance to people who choose to live in flood plains, as well as those that live in beachfront homes.  Those people should live with the consequences of their decisions, and not expect a government bailout.  There is a reason why the private flood insurance companies would not write policies in these areas.  The government takeover of flood insurance is not justified as a response.  Also, as these Monroe residents are finding out, a helping hand is also a controlling hand.

The founding fathers did not want this type of centralized government control over the everyday lives of individual Americans.  Where you choose to live is your personal choice.  At most, local government, if necessary, can regulate development within its jurisdictions.

We can and should make decisions on development at a local level.  We don’t need FEMA, HUD, FAA, EPA, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, Transportation, Commerce, Department of Education, or Homeland Security approval for development decisions.

Reference:

The Seattle Times: FEMA: Monroe mobile homes in flood plain must go