Dear Editor,

For as long as I can remember, every so often taxpayers would provide the money for beach sand restoration along the North Carolina coast.

Great dredges would suck up sand from sounds and blow it out of pipes stretched across the islands onto the shrinking beaches.

The reasoning was that beaches were a tourism resource and had to be restored. It was nice that in doing so the effort also protected beach homes of those able to afford them. Now it is done also to protect multi-million dollar resorts.

The U.S. Government encourages development on beaches and other flood plains by guaranteeing flood insurance coverage for such property. Special interests got Congress to provide that service. It can’t be that people are dumb to build in flood areas when Congress says it is OK, we will back you up if something happens.

Then came Katrina. The damage extended then to the other folks. Without flood insurance, they are literally up the creek and have to depend on the mercy of government aid, if it is available.

Since Katrina, devastating tornadoes have leveled towns across America. Who is helping the survivors?

Now comes the $60-some billions of dollars in damages to the Northeast. Who is going to pay for damages there?

My real question is, what do we do if we have $60 billion worth of damage done each future year in the United States?

Even if property is insured, the insurance companies are going to have to recover that expense somehow. An increase in my payments? Yes, I have personally received tornado damage here in Richmond County in recent years.

I’m not against mutually assisting people in disasters. More deadly storms are forecast in our future. I’m just curious as to how we will continue to pay for such damages.

Tom MacCallum

Rockingham