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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

That goes for severe blizzards for NYC as well, because I say so.

Public funds must no longer be allocated to clearing snow from roads every year just because selfish people decide to live in NYC.

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"Public funds" AREN'T used to clear the snow. People in NYC pay to clear the snow. The problem in this instance is that the federal government backstops a "flood insurance" program that is intrinsically not insurance, because the only people who buy into it are the ones that get flooded every year. Everyone in the risk pool is tied together. That's why there is no private flood insurance for the area, because it's literally impossible.

All this money is a straight up handout to allow some specific people to keep getting a high value lifestyle on someone else's dime.

I don't know that it's necessarily used for "clearing the snow", but FEMA funds on the order of millions of dollars have been used in NY for snow storms and blizzards in 2017, 2014, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000, and 1999 per their website[1]. While it doesn't list funding numbers, FEMA disasters were also declared in 1998, 1996, 1993, 1991, 1987, 1985 and 1977.

This is in addition to hurricane funds, the most recent of which was just last year in 2021.

And while FL has received significantly more FEMA funds than NY[2] (6.8B vs 405M), NY likewise receives significantly more than say their neighbor VT (56M) or far away MT (a mere 11M). Is all the money spent in NY likewise a "straight up handout to allow some specific people to keep getting a high value lifestyle on someone else's dime"?

[1]: https://www.fema.gov/locations/new%20york#declared-disasters [2]: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparednes...

Are those federal funds being used for snow clearage?

FEMA spent about two billion on New York from Sandy.

Why move the goalpost? Snow clearance does not come from federal money.

I apologize for upsetting you. You sounded as if you thought FEMA didn’t contribute financially to storm management in New York. I agree the other user’s comment about snow removal was flippant.

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