Could FEMA Deny Beach Funds to Delaware?
Or at least those parts of the beach area with those ‘No Public Access, Go Bleep Yourself’ signs?
Well, something similar may be happening in ‘exclusive’ areas along the Jersey shore, according to today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:
Jersey Shore towns where beachfront-property owners deny public access to bathers may have difficulty obtaining federal funds to repair damage caused by a severe nor’easter this month.
…Long Beach Township – which weaves non-contiguously along Long Beach Island’s 18-mile length and includes Loveladies, North Beach, and Harvey Cedars – may be ground zero in a tug-of-war for FEMA funds if they become available.
Unlike much of the Shore – especially Atlantic and Cape May Counties, where the economy depends on pleasing tourists – parts of Long Beach Island retain an elitist image.
Day-trippers find it hard even to set foot on the beach. There is no place to park, few paths over the dunes, and no restrooms or other amenities for miles in some areas, creating a virtually private beach for the owners of high-priced real estate in towns on the island’s upper midsection and north end.
Eligibility for funding is contingent on “comply(ing) with state and federal regulations giving the public easy access to the waterfront.”
If the idle rich don’t grant easements, they’re SOL.
As far as I’m concerned, that should be the minimal standard required to move even one grain of sand back onto the beach. Otherwise, let the carpetbaggers do what we have to do–try to get help from their insurance companies.
Tags: Delaware Beaches, FEMA
I might have to go with you on this one. I am out. Happy Thanksgiving.
After the recent storm there was a photo of a house at Indian Beach just south of Dewey before and after the storm no dune because the rich pigs wouldn’t grant the corps an easement, before the storm a nice beach private of course after the storm the Atlantic Ocean under the house. Bethany’s board walk was saved by the dunes and according to the mayor if it hadn’t been for them they may have lost half of the town. Oh yes those same dunes that all the folks were complaining about.
Private Beach Owners should not be given a penny for beach replenishment,it’s thier property, let them maintain it. That the richy’s who own beach front were ever given a penny is a kick in the teeth for all taxpayers.
Private beach owners can’t argue it’s for tourism or to help the local economy, can they?
Let them pay for their own beach replenishment.
You know who had private beaches . . . just joking
the Kennedys?
Was it Hitler?
I’ve been reading too many articles about Tea Baggers, so Nazis are on my mind — not that they are Nazis, but that they compare Obama’s Socialism to Nazism.
Apologies.
the Nazis were the loud minority right wing fringe with a charismatic insane leader before they took power. it may not be a bad idea to keep an eye on the teabagz given that fact.
New Jersey is a democratic state with many of the property owners on LBI from New York…they’ll get the funds. There are also too many celebrities who vacation on the North End who are political contributors.
This is politics and will have nothing to do with principles.
is that why states do or dont get funding? here i though it was because their wing nut governors threaten to leave the union if the government gives socialist money to their unemployed starving people who’s houses were washed away…. naw you’re right tom… its the amount of famous people. California is doin GREAT!
I would think not repairing the beach will eventually cause big problems. LBI is long and thin. Storms have divided the island in the past (in the fall of ’42 for one, I believe). My Grandparents lived on island at the time (my father was only months old). My grandmother had some really wild pictures of aftermath of that storm.
I don’t have a lot sympathy for the idle rich who are denying the rest of access to the beach, but its effects a lot other people when the ocean washes across the boulevard.
The whole island is nothing but a big sand bar. We never should been building there to be begin with, but that ship has sailed.
The federal beach replenishment projects weren’t for the private beaches. They’re for the public, tourist-y ones – Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, etc.
a.price – I agree – we have to keep an eye on those tea-baggers. There is this poster with the warning sign of fascism (by looking at previous fascist regimes) are
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
’nuff said I think.
JG – I agree that it could cause a bigger problem but I still think that easements should be in all of the deeds issued for the water front property as well as a requirement to help pay for any necessary work to prevent or reverse eroding. The pretty view comes with a price-tag attached – get over it.
As for people building houses as close to the water as the one that was shown in, I believe, Bethany — too bad – your own damn fault if that happens to your house, after all you didn’t respect Mother Nature by building there (or buying there) and she showed you her middle finger.
Its kind of like my idiot neighbor across the street that tore down trees in an area the size of a football field and now wonders why his property floods and holds water – and called DNREC complaining about it blaming the road for it and wanting them to fix it.
Dare I say let Delaware go the way of South Carolina? The palmetto state boosts of 50-60 continuous miles of ‘public beach’.
Also, anyone who understands ‘the beach’ knows that it takes two–count ’em two–dune barriers, running parallel, to protect ‘the land’ from storm surges. So, anyone who defies Mother Nature, gets what they deserve and taxpayers should not pay the price for greediness.
Can’t those LBI ers take up a collection and pay their own way?
As long as Mike Castle is doling out the welfare to the wealthy – the beach front homes are safe.