Folks who had the foresight to have flood insurance when they are near the water will be largely reimbursed. Those who chose not to incur the expense of buying flood insurance will not be reimbursed. Each group made their choices—one wise and one foolish. At most, the federal government should make low interest loans available as well as the normal level of disaster assistance. I’m getting the feeling that New York and New Jersey are trying to milk this and actually make huge “profits” off of this storm.
If NY and NJ want to have all their recovery work done by overpaid union workers doing repairs as slow as they can, then the NY and NJ citizens need to be the ones to pay for it.
Beachfront properties in New Jersey typically sell for much more than the Federal Flood Insurance limits. So, no, many aren't fully covered even if they paid for insurance. As to how wise it was to build expensive homes that close to the ocean -- I've asked that question for years. This is not the first time that the NJ barrier islands and low-lying parts of the mainland have been flooded by a hurricane. Residents were lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of any really bad hurricanes for the last few decades.