Editor, Gazette-Journal:

On Sept. 23, I went to the Mathews County Board of Supervisors meeting to hear about plans to adopt the new FEMA flood map and the proposed new ordinance concerning the floodplain. First, let me thank Mr. Jack White on the board for his two letters to the Gazette-Journal. Without them, I am not sure the citizens of Mathews County would have known about this draconian law and bureaucrats that seem to have a totalitarian mindset more in keeping with the German Third Reich or the Soviet Union.

I certainly witnessed this Tuesday night when Mr. Charles Banks of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation bluntly announced to all that if the board didn’t pass the ordinance by Dec. 9, then flood insurance would be cancelled and mortgages would come due with dire consequences for all.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the board of supervisors, with the exception of Mr. White and Mrs. Burns, seemed incapable of any action at all. Is this because of in...