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Tech.Picts page 12

Uninsured Zones

back to LevUP, future.novel, page 5

The software at the insurance mega-corps had decided that it was too dangerous to live in certain areas of the world due to the increase in occurrence of certain natural disasters.

The most hazardous places to live were declared to be the Tornado Waste and the Atlantic Flood Waste of the MidNorAmHemi (see Future.Atlas.), as much of old Europe had simply disappeared and so the point was moot.

The old tornado alley of the old American Midwest had become the tornado super highway.

The Atlantic coast as well as much of the American Midwest was flooded by the rise in level of the ocean and prone to many more flash floods even futher inland due to the increased frequency and magnitude of hurricanes. Many of which were then reclassified as supercanes. The old American West Coast up to the foothills had ceased to exsist. Due to the weather, the tall, slender, skyscrappers of the past were no longer economically feasible. Self-insured tour businesses took the rich on armored surface boat and submarine trips to visit the partially submerged skyscrapers of the great old American costal cities.

It was worth the expense however, as in many cases more than half of the submerged mega-structures still rose majestically out of the water. The great glass and metal structures gleaming like so many faceted giant crystals magnified by the sun so brightly reflected from the waves and water surrounding them in a way that never was possible when they were just land-based structures. Still they were a testimony to the achievements of man even in the face of the even greater glory and power of the environment.

The insurance mega corps couldn't legally keep you out of these zones. You could leave the safety of the 'Cretes and enter the un-insured zones if you wanted to, but, don't get in trouble out there, because in the uninsured zones you are on your own. If go into the un-insureded zones and are lucky enough to make it back, but happen to need medical aid you'd better be able to pay for it yourself as not injury or rescue incurred while in the un-insured zones was covered by the divi.dole or the guaranteed min.lev of insurance coverage.

Of course, there was one group that regularly tested their ability to survive in the un-insured zones, the Stormboarders!

During the time of the Stormboarders only the 'Cretes (see Future.Novel) and the SubBergs were considered Insured Zones where the benefits of the guaranteed min.lev of divi.dole provided insurance applied.

One interesting note was that during the period when the storms and flooding were at the worst the world began cooling off due to the solar radiation reflecting effects of the flooding and storms. The cooling off effect was greatly magnified as these disasters had vitually eliminated the automobile, roads and parking lots that had become the great heat generators and heat absorbers science had deemed to be the major cause in the excesssive warming of the planet. These man-made effects warmed the earth to a point far past even the most extreme predicted by past natural warming patterns that had for so long been the anti-environmentalist tool against the environmentalist call for no cars and trucks, parking lots and roads.

back to LevUP, future.novel, page 5

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Copyright (c) 1996 Lee Skidmore