Obscure Law Ensnares "Damn Fools" in Texas

It looks like some of the homes on Galveston Island beaches may not be rebuilt. The AP reports that a Texas law prohibits private buildings inside the average high-tide line. Beach erosion caused by Ike has moved a lot of private homes into that category. The law not only prohibits rebuilding of destroyed homes, but requires undamaged homes to be demolished with little or no compensation to the owners. It is ironic that the owners of insured destroyed homes will be compensated by their insurers, but the owners of undamaged homes will likely get nothing. Apparently they will all lose their rights to the property.

Here's what A.R. "Babe" Schwartz, the former state senator who wrote the law said about the affected homeowners:

"We're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given."

I couldn't have said it better myself -- although I have tried.

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