Coastal Zone Issues

We are completing our third annual coastal zone research in South Carolina.

The issues of beach renourishment and coastal development continue to dominate the environment. In spite of the risks and very elaborate rules regarding coastal construction (hurricane, wind, and storm surge building codes have been greatly improved) people keep building on the sensitive barrier islands.

Several big storms hit the Atlantic coast and we observed significant erosion in places such as Folley Beach, SC (our benchmark location). After a multi-million dollar renourishment project in 2005-06 we now again noted major erosion of sand structures along the beaches and observed another sand replacement initiative under way on the northern end of Folley Beach.

Clearly an active storm season even if no hurricanes materialize in the area, presents a challenge to beach residents, beach structures, and coastal governments (municipal and county) as further and continuous resources must be diverted to storm damage management.

In November 2009 a tropical storm sat over the area and once again created significant erosion from high tides, winds and heavy rainfall.

Another ominous development has been the shrinking away of private insurance from underwriting policies for shore property. Allstate, which suffered major losses in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida in the past years has withdrawn from many coastal areas. This increases the pressure on the federal and state governments to create subsidized insurance to preserve the economic development base of homeowners and attending retail trade on which coastal communities have become dependent.

We continue to study and monitor the growing dilemma of "fatal attraction" of coastal and beach areas which are the first choice for living and vacationing for Americans on the one hand and on the other hand the realization of high risk and high cost due to increased storm predictions.

Speaking and Presenting

You are a bad speaker.

There, I said it.

But, unfortunately, even though we don't know you most people are uhnnn, like ... poor speaking, ahh ... not good at talking in , ummm ... public.

At SEAS we have developed an intensive training course that walks speakers through every aspect of public speaking.

Yes, from preparation to configuration of visuals to the final delivery, there are very specific ways of crafting your presentation.

You can be the smartest person in the world if you can't deliver your message you have diminished your value.

Our primary target audience are college and university students becuase they are on the cusp of success and they MUST polish their oral presentation skills.

One of the central concerns of our class is to help speakers fix those HORRIBLE Power Point presentations!

Yes, Power Point can be deadly! As Tufte says there is a reason why we call PP outlines "bullets"! Often deadly bullets!

After we teach you how to make Power Point be a positive not a negative tool from a design perspective we teach you how to properly use Power Point when you deliver. (Hint - NEVER read long lines of text on a Power Point!).

So, I hope we see you in our class which will be taught on-line, on the Internet.

Insurance subsidies for risky coasts.

In our recent research in South Carolina we frequently were told about state initiatives that make it more attractive for insurance companies to underwrite risky property (especially coastal property).

Here is a new Mississippi program. These quotes are from The Clarion-Ledger:

• "The Legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Haley Barbour to be signed into law that would let the state supplement the "wind pool" that covers the most at-risk coastal properties in the state. But if homeowners from Vicksburg to Meridian to Iuka see that their homeowners' insurance premiums under this bill are being used to offset higher premiums on the Coast, their howls could rival a hurricane's."

Hurricane Katrina was the trigger for this initiative.

• "House Bill 1500 [allows] insurers to recoup losses in major coastal disasters from policyholders across Mississippi, not just the Coast. The state's insurer of last resort, the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, or "wind pool," will receive an $80 million subsidy under HB 1500 - $20 million annually over four years from the state's premium taxes to lower rates until the insurance market stabilizes."

The Omaha World-Herald reported on a meeting which sheds much broader light on the coming insurance crisis. The story was written by Steve Jordon and appeared on Mar. 29, 2007.

• "Troubles in the insurance industry are a harbinger of greater economic and social threats ahead for a planet whose climate is warming, Nebraska's insurance commissioner said Wednesday.
• "The thing is so enormous it's hard for people to get their hands around," said Tim Wagner, who heads the Nebraska Department of Insurance and a national task force of officials studying the impact of climate change on insurance.
• Insurance, he said, is like the canary that coal miners carried with them to warn about dangerous gases. "Our canary isn't dead yet, but it isn't singing anymore," Wagner said.
• That means insurance companies are charging much higher rates, requiring bigger deductibles and seeking taxpayer subsidies to cover homes and businesses in coastal areas. But the impact won't be confined to the 50 percent of the population that lives within 70 miles of the coasts, he said."

Well, there it is. A huge problem. A very complex and controvertial problem. A very "political" problem as well.

We at SEAS L.L.C. feel that insurance is the "Rosetta Stone" of the future of coastal areas and is for us one of the most complex and interesting areas on which to work.

A great source of information on this concern is the Insurance News Net. Go to the following web page for a very useful article "Coastal Insurance Concerns Demonstrate Need for New Catastrophe Solutions." This is a quote from the story:

• "June Holmes [Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) CEO] * pointed out that a one-size fits all approach is not likely to work given the diversity of coastal markets. "Conditions in Florida are unique from any other state," said Holmes. "Over 80 percent of the insured property in Florida is located along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts and the total value of insured property there is nearly $2 trillion and growing. Florida is the most hurricane-prone state in the U.S., accounting for roughly half of the total U.S. annual aggregate storm losses. The solution to market disruptions in Louisiana, South Carolina, or Massachusetts will look much different from one crafted by Florida legislators. That's why we [PCI] favor a state-by-state approach backed up at a very high level by federal liquidity protection."

http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.asp?a=top_pc&q=0&id=77248

* PCI is composed of more than 1,000 member companies, representing the broadest cross-section of insurers of any national trade association. PCI members write over $194 billion in annual premium, 40.1 percent of the nation’s property/casualty insurance. Member companies write 51.3 percent of the U.S. automobile insurance market, 39 percent of the homeowners market, 32.1 percent of the commercial property and liability market, and 38.7 percent of the private workers compensation market.

Coastal Problems - Insurance.

After Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast many insurance companies pulled out. The risk was too hight, their losses too great.

One of the serious questions that now loom over the US coastal areas is "Who's gonna pick up the tab for coastal insurance?"

We are conducting some projects on the East Coast and have found a great deal of anxiety and frustration surrounding this issue.

In South Carolina, where coastal development is surging as more and more baby boomers seek to live near the sea, insurance of properties that are exposed to hurricane damage is a hot topic.

Charleston and surrounding areas lie low to the sea (it's actually called the "Low Country"of South Carolina). Therefore, besides the commercial, government, non-profit, and private properties located on the shore and within reach of storm surge, many other areas away from the beaches are barely above sea level. This means that they are also prone to flooding and, of course, are also vulnerable to hurricane winds. We drove to the old navy yard one day during serious thunder storms and were barely able to skirt the huge lakes of water that were rapidly accumulating and had no where to run off.

As in other parts of the United States where these conditions pertain, insurance companies have either been greatly increasing their premiums or even cancelling coastal insurance policies.

The question now arises whether government should step in and

• regulate (i.e. force the insurance companies to continue insuring and regulating premiums)
• allow market forces to operate and leave hands off
• create a government, taxpayer funded insurance program that covers these coastal properties.
• develop incentives and tax breaks for insurance companies to give them an incentive to underwrite

This seems like a normal problem facing public policymakers and in reality it is. However, there is a passionate disagreement over what is appropriate.

Should government "force" the private sector to behave in ways that run counter to the market-driven priorities of private companies?

Should taxpayer money be used to benefit citizens living in the higher risk coastal areas of the state?

Should insurance subsidies be passed and if so should they be "means tested" so the state is not subsidizing people with large incomes or companies with deep pockets.

There is even an argument which says that it is good for the coastal areas if insurance is hard to come by because then fewer people will build in risky and environmentally sensitive beach areas.

No doubt the issue of insurance will grow as a major political and public policy concern as we move into what is expected to be several decades of more intense tropical storm and hurricane activity.

One thing is very clear. There are no easy answers.

Usability Rules

In the 36 years of writing and consulting we have finally discovered the secret to success- usability!

Several years ago when we were all deeply frustrated with Microsoft products we all accepted the fact that "it's the computer's fault". Then we began to realize that it is rarely the computer. It is the designers, programmer, tech support that has failed us! Microsoft didn't even have a usability department! At SEAS L.L.C. we have the end user as the place you begin a project - not the place you end it!

In other words for any service we do we always start with the person or persons who will be using the product.

Who are they?

What do they need?

How much do they inderstand about the information provided?

How are their technical skills?

What is the end use of the product or knowledge? By "reverse designing" we have created textbooks, classes, seminars, keynote speeches, Identity Theft Prevention (IDP) tools, a series of courses on Coastal Policy, and software design ideas that work.

Moreover, our goal is to make them work intuitively without the need for "manuals" and "instruction publications". Reverse design simply means that we bring users into the creation of our products and services.

That means we never have to re-design!

So, user friendly really does rule!