Morning Call – July 20, 2005

Floods, Joe Campbell and Jim Cawley

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Dr. Joseph Campbell practices podiatric medicine and is our family foot doctor. He is also Bucks County’s Coroner. I always feel more comfortable standing in his presence…rather than lying down.

The other day as he was attacking my feet with great gusto and good humor, he launched into a conversation about water damage caused by hurricanes and violent storms. Hurricane Dennis had just struck Florida. Campbell wonders why people insist on rebuilding in the flood plain. He thinks that it’s wrong for the government to help residents rebuild via disaster relief funding, courtesy of the taxpayer.

“How many times does your house have to be destroyed,” Campbell asked? And to drive the point home, he added, “And the tax payer pays.”

Coincidentally, the next day, I read a story about insurance rates for properties along the New Jersey shore. In spite of the catastrophic losses in Florida during last year’s and this year’s hurricane season, insurance rates in New Jersey have remained stable.

I can’t prove this but my bet is that everyone’s insurance rate increases whenever a part of the country has been hit by violent storms. Campbell agrees. “We’ll all pay higher insurance premiums,” he added. Allowing property owners to rebuild in flood plain areas encourages the cycle to continue.

“We need to end the cycle of flood, rebuild, flood, and rebuild,” echoed Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley when I called him about Campbell’s idea.

I asked Cawley whether the earthen dams built along the Neshaminy Creek in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s had lessened flood damage today. “The dam systems built 40 years ago have worked very well,” Cawley replied. “They’ve [the dams] curbed some of the flooding.”

Cawley thinks that the county was wise in adopting a policy of using federal disaster money to buy homes in the flood plain, damaged or destroyed during bad storms. The 1996 hurricane caused tremendous property loss along the Delaware and the Neshaminy, he said.

“We believe it’s important to take homes out of the flood plain,” Cawley continued. “Buying those homes after a flood makes good sense.”

But he was quick to point out that many residents want to rebuild no matter how high the risk. Cawley told this story about Sandra Miller, a fellow Bucks Commissioner, and his visit along River Road near New Hope after the recent flood.

“We met this discouraged property owner who’d had extensive damage,” Cawley began. “You can have my house for $125,000, the man told me. So I gave this information to Bill Mitchell (Bucks Director of County Parks). A week later, Bill called the man…he’d changed his tune. ‘I was angry at the time,’ the property owner said, ‘But I’d take $500,000.’ That owner also had a wife who was not pleased that her husband offered to sell their home at a bargain.

“The county wasn’t prepared to pay $500,000 for the house so there was no deal,” Cawley laughed, “But you can see the importance of taking homes out of the flood plain.”

Last weekend, friends took Mighty Betsy and I for a boat ride on the Delaware near the Milford Bridge. Although the river was low, you could see the extensive damage from last month’s storm. I thought of Campbell’s quip as I viewed the devastation.

“If you buy a home in the swamp, why be mad when the basement floods,” Campbell concluded?

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith