State of emergency

From the Palm Beach Post-

Jupiter, Singer Island and the stretch from the Lake Worth pier to Lantana were included in Monday's designation.

The DEP's move could ease access to state emergency money, but the county faces other critical issues, said Dan Bates, director of the county's environmental enhancement restoration division.

"Money is really not the issue as much as time," Bates said Monday.

The start of hurricane season, June 1, is approaching, and the sooner the county can start restoring beaches, the better for the endangered sea turtles and their nests.

The 30-day shoreline emergency declaration will help the county speed up permitting procedures to restore beaches faster.

The move also allows other beachfront property owners to seek relief.

Residents can seek emergency permits for temporary reinforcement of foundations, placement of sandbags, construction of temporary wooden retaining walls and other work.

County beaches have suffered severe erosion since last week, when Subtropical Storm Andrea wiped out dunes protecting barrier islands.

The "effects of the storm were devastating, producing widespread flooding and structural damage, completely negating the county's recent dune restoration efforts," County Commissioner Karen Marcus wrote in a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist.

I'm going to make a couple of points, Feel free to tell me if I'm crazy.

1- A storm causes Florida beaches to erode and kills wildlife. Is that necessarily bad or is that an act of nature. Nature is both a cycle of life(creation) and death(destruction). If a storm created by nature destroys or threatens to destroy some part of the enviorment, should man be interfering?

No I'm not implying man should allow human lives to be killed by a storm. Man doesn't have to live by the shore in a area prone to hurricanes. The sea turtles on the other hand are different.

2- Which brings us to the question- Should the government be subsidizing people's stupidity aka living in a home near a beach? I truthfully feel if people want to live in such risky dwellings, they have to accept the responsibility when Mother Nature shows her fury. Why should taxpayers who don't take these dumb risks subsidze those who do?

Linked to- Bullwinkle, StikNstein, The World According to Carl,