I'm from Florida - born and raised. I've never once heard anyone call any hurricane "the end of Florida as we know it". What I have heard, and seen, is extreme damages caused to homes and cars even hundreds of miles away from the eye of the storm.
In 2022, Hurricane Ian caused extreme flooding in the Orlando-region, including in areas that have never suffered from hurricane flooding before. For me personally, all 3 cars parked at my house were total losses b/c of the flood damage.
The extreme and extensive damages in the Appalachian region last fall is another great example of hurricane risk not being "grossly exaggerated".
That's not at all how insurance companies price risk.
Unknown risk is more risk, and more risk is more expensive.
Therefore, unknown hurricane data is more risky and thus more expensive.
If you know your car's engine is going to need replaced after exactly 100,000 miles, you know to save up for a new engine or a new car - and you know how long you have to save, so you can precisely set aside an appropriate figure every month.
If you know your car's engine will die sometime within the next 15,000 miles, you know you need to start saving up immediately, but b/c you don't know when in the next 15,000 miles you have to rush your saving.
If you have no idea when your car's engine is going to die, you are likely to end up dead engine and little to no savings.
If you are willing to put in some Project Management time yourself, you can get solar for a LOT cheaper than if you hire an outside solar company.
For the installation - most roofing companies will install the roof mounts and screw on the solar panels for $1.5k-$2k (might be different in your area, but still cheap). An electrician can be hired to make all the solar panel connections and the grid connection for a few hundred $$$.
As the Project Manager - you'll need to source the panels, file the permits, and hire the roofers and electricians. https://www.solarwholesale.com/jerry-rig-everything/ can assist (assist, not do) all of that for you for a cheap price. $10k-$15k with Solar Wholesale will get you the panels and cables you need, plus the engineering drawings, the permit paperwork, and etc. (thank you for the great Solar DIY series Jerry!)
For $20k and working as the Project Manager yourself, you can get what most solar companies will charge you $50k for. Which is ballpark inline with construction project management costs - typical residential construction project management cost 40-50% of the total project budget. A lot of those projects as complex enough to warrant those fees, unless you have a lot of experience, but in my opinion adding solar to your roof is not a complex process and does not warrant those fees.
Did you not read the part of my comment were I clarified "cities without major homeless shelter capabilities"? New York has major cities that have the infrastructure and resources to shelter homeless populations during major cold events. Plenty of Northern CITIES have those capabilities, but WV doesn't. WV doesn't have a single major city and doesn't have the capabilities to shelter a homeless population during major cold events.
>> COLD towns without major homeless shelter capabilities
"without major homeless shelter capabilities" is a key part of my original claim. Every city you listed is a major city that has the infrastructure and resources to shelter homeless populations during major cold events. Plenty of Northern CITIES have those capabilities. but WV doesn't have any major cities and lacks cities with the capabilities to shelter homeless individuals during major cold events.
>> Places like West Virginia have way less homelessness than places with high housing costs like the west coast.
COLD towns without major homeless shelter capabilities always have lower rates of homelessness b/c the cold weather is literally life threatening.
Warm(er) regions, like most of the West Coast that isn't known for blizzards, have higher rates of homelessness b/c there is little risk of death if a homeless person camps out in the woods. Note that a lot of homeless folks in warmer regions didn't become homeless in those warm regions - they often become homeless in northern regions and migrate to warm regions prior to winter.
Comparing homelessness in WV to Cali doesn't seem fair since so much of the folks that become homeless in WV are forced to leave the state to survive.
>>> Credit card fees are where the real money is made, and the meat of the complaint here.
From the DOJ Press Release [0]:
"Justice Department Sues Visa for Monopolizing Debit Markets"
"Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the complaint alleges that Visa illegally maintains a monopoly over debit network markets by using its dominance to thwart the growth of its existing competitors and prevent others from developing new and innovative alternatives."
0 mentions of the word "credit"
27 mentions of the word "debit"
I'd love for this lawsuit to be about Credit Card fees, but it appears be limited in scope to debit card fees.
Can you elaborate on "really made their membership program into something special"? What exactly could they have done that you think would make their membership something special?
Plenty of interstates have a two-tier lane system, one tier with lots of exits, and an expressway tier with fewer exits/entrances. That is not a new innovation.