After months of debate, the United States Congress has passed a
bill that will allocate $51 billion to Hurricane Sandy relief
helping the thousands who lost their homes and businesses to the
devastating storm last October. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
announced that $400 million of the aid will be used to fund New
York’s buyout program, an initiative to help address the damaged
homes and coastline. The program is two-fold; in part it will
help reimburse the property damage caused by the storm, but the
initiative has a larger goal, which is to address the nature of
coastal flooding and create a barrier that would mitigate the
damage created to the coast by storm surges in the future. Since
the storm, there have been many suggestions as to how to prepare
for the type of damage brought on by Hurricane Sandy of 2012 and
Hurricane Irene of 2011. These suggestions range from flood
gates to barrier reefs. Cuomo’s buyout program, as reported by
the Architect’s Newspaper Blog, hopes to encourage residents
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