Probably 99% of the homes on the west end of Dauphin Island where the most storm damage & erosion occurs are vacation homes. Many are for rental income. There are very few permanent residents on the west end, & for good reason - your property can easily wash away, every year!
We need to stop wasting money replacing infrastructure & rebuilding sand beaches that wash away, storm or no storm. We should buy up properties that file multiple flood damage claims, turning the land to public use and/or wetlands.
How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars
http://reason.com/archives/2004/03/01/confessions-of-a-welfare-queen
If the ocean took my house, Uncle Sam would pay to replace it under the National Flood Insurance Program. Since private insurers weren’t dumb enough to sell cheap insurance to people who built on the edges of oceans or rivers, Congress decided the government should step in and do it. So if the ocean ate what I built, I could rebuild and rebuild again and again -- there was no limit to the number of claims on the same property in the same location -- up to a maximum of $250,000 per house per flood. And you taxpayers would pay for it.