Florida Trend's 'The Hurricane Paradox'

[yzerfan]

http://www.floridatrend.com/issue/defau ... a=5551&s=2

"Robert and Aida Florit will spend this hurricane season in a mobile home in Punta Gorda, same as last year. Only it’s not their home — that dwelling was destroyed by Hurricane Charley last August. Since November, they’ve lived in a 70-by-14-foot mobile home given to them temporarily by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Florits, a retired couple, are just one of 13,000 Florida families still living in FEMA mobile homes and trailers — either on the sites of their former homes or in FEMA “villages.”

The Florits — whose FEMA village is sandwiched between I-75 and a prison — are hardly alone in being unsettled as the 2005 hurricane season begins this month. Tens of thousands of Floridians in the pockets scarred by last summer’s storms, along with the businesses and local governments that serve them, are stretched thin and worry about what another storm could mean.

Meanwhile, however, Florida finds itself overall just fine. The state’s property insurance infrastructure, while in need of tweaking, is largely intact. Last summer’s four-storm whammy hasn’t deterred tourism, which even with the disruption in the third quarter increased 3% in 2004. Visitor spending through just November topped 2003’s $51.5 billion total. Building is booming, and home values are skyrocketing. Tax revenue is soaring, climbing $752 million this year and next on hurricane repair spending alone."

I'm not comfortable posting whole copyrighted articles here, even though the full article is a very good one. The rest is available for free on Florida Trend's site, and a username and password from bugmenot.com will get you in.