Flood Insurance

Large numbers of homeowners along the Jersey Shore will in effect be forced to raise their homes to protect against future storms after Gov. Christie announced Thursday that the state would adopt the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new floodplain maps. Those whose houses were damaged in Hurricane Sandy have been struggling to figure out how to rebuild, if they can at all, since the release early last month of the new flood maps. The maps are the basis on which federal flood insurance rates are determined, but they are likely to face challenges from local officials and are not expected to be formally certified by FEMA for up to two years.

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - The small yellow cottage has always been more than a house to Bob Bratek and his family. It was their slice of oceanfront heaven, a repository of family memories built in the '60s by three generations of Brateks. It was made of "hearts and souls and emotions and memories," Bratek said, recalling how he would ride there as a teenager in the family station wagon, its freight of free siding and donated wood causing the back to practically scrape the road. Sandy battered the Brateks' home and others passed down in families that scrimped to buy Jersey Shore getaways.

A bill, crafted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to revise the federal flood-insurance program will be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives this spring. The legislation is designed primarily to restore the flood-insurance program to financial solvency by increasing the amount that can be borrowed to cover disaster damages to $22 billion, from $3.5 billion. The measure, introduced in November by Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Ohio) and Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), had been the subject of committee hearings in the House and Senate.

Borough homeowners will pay $50 extra this year for their federal flood insurance because the borough has not resolved a two-year dispute over a Darby Creek floodway-encroachment violation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides flood insurance for homeowners, has put the borough on a yearlong probation, the first step toward suspending flood insurance, according to Dave Thomas, who supervises FEMA's community mitigation programs. The probation was ordered after a meeting Nov. 8 between property owner Dave Messina and officials from the borough, FEMA and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

MINOT, N.D. - The U.S. government will help the flooded city of Minot "for the duration," the cabinet secretary responsible for federal disaster assistance said Wednesday, but she cautioned that North Dakota residents should better prepare for future disasters. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government "does not have deep pockets, nor is it a panacea," after taking a helicopter tour over the city where 4,100 homes have been damaged by Souris River floodwaters and more than 11,000 people have had to temporarily leave.

Steve Bosch of Elkins Park wanted to make sure that he wasn't just engaging in a gripe session when he contacted me. What he hoped to do was impart a warning to readers who might be in the market for flood insurance. Although it appears to be a no-brainer for, say, people who live in low-lying areas near the Schuylkill or the Delaware, Bosch cautioned that flood insurance was not something to be taken lightly. He has lived in his house since 1998 and survived 12 floods, he said, starting with Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and ending with Hurricane Irene.

When Muriel Sandner and her husband purchased their home on Beach Avenue here in 1959, they had no flood insurance. When the federal government started a flood insurance program in 1968, the Sandners didn't bother to sign up. "My husband thought it was a waste," Sandner recalls. "Even in the storm of 1962, we got no water in our house. He always said that if we lost the house, it's the property that really has the value. " In the mid-'80s, she insured the contents of her home - but not the house itself.

Few places flood the way St. Charles County floods. These lowlands between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers often are submerged - 43 percent of the county and the homes of 3,500 people are underwater right now. Even when nature is less dramatic than it has been this summer - such as when it merely rains hard - many places are awash. And time and again, when the waters rise, the people of St. Charles County turn to the American taxpayer for help. Then many of them move right back into places such as the Princess Jodi Village trailer park along the Missouri or "river rat" shacks along the Mississippi.

Dear Harry: I bought my home in 1999. The bank would not approve a mortgage unless I had flood insurance. I purchased it for the $56,000 cost of the home. A few years later, the mortgage was sold by my bank, and there were no problems until 2009. At that time, the servicing company insisted that I up the coverage on all my insurance to $113,000. That was the value they said the house was worth. Yesterday, I got a letter saying that a further hike was needed. They insist that houses in my area are increasing in value despite the fact that they are in a flood zone and that real estate is generally declining in value elsewhere.

Ben P. Lee stood in the sandy soil skirting his new 5,000-square-foot brick Colonial home yesterday and squinted out toward the dirty floodwaters that were 150 yards away and creeping closer every hour. A certified public accountant, Lee knew the math was simple. If the roiling water invades his $350,000 home before midnight tonight, he must cover the entire loss. But if the onslaught strikes one minute later, Lee, by a stroke of luck any Georgia preacher would consider divine, will be saved.

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - With their backs up against the Brigantine seawall, two Jersey Shore congressmen advocated Monday for a less-drastic series of hikes to flood-insurance premiums than Congress mandated before Sandy. Under the legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo and cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan, the rate of the hikes would slow from 25 percent a year for four years to 12.5 percent over eight years, to help address the slow pace of rebuilding nearly six months after the destructive hurricane.

Underwater doesn't even begin to get at the heart of Maurice Corkery's predicament. "This was my summer home," the Delaware County plant manager said of his little rancher on Third Street in Ocean City, N.J., flooded with its foundation cracked - totalled, really - by Sandy. "I was trying to think of a time line," he said. "It's been so long. I'm so screwed up. I haven't seen any money. Where is the money? All they do is talk about it. " His engineer has to talk to the insurance company engineer.

UNION BEACH, N.J. - Gov. Christie slammed the National Flood Insurance Program in his first Sandy-related salvo against the Obama administration, saying Tuesday that the pace of its payouts to storm victims had "stunk. " During a news conference in this Sandy-ravaged community on the Raritan Bay, Christie said that 30 percent of flood insurance claims, which are paid by the federal government, had been resolved, compared with 85 percent of homeowners' insurance claims, which are paid directly by insurance companies.

Shore houses that have been in working-class families for generations will be abandoned. Property values will spiral downward, leaving Shore towns' budgets in tatters. That is the dire scenario painted by a growing coalition of federal, state, and local officials along the Jersey Shore after Gov. Christie's announcement last week that New Jersey would adopt the federal government's preliminary floodplain maps - which would effectively require houses along large swaths of the Shore to be elevated to protect against future storm surges.

Gov. Christie deserves applause for quickly announcing tough new building standards for the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort. The rules are based on new federal flood-plain maps, which are not expected to be made final for at least 18 months, so the risk assessments may change. But Christie said he deliberately set high standards so property owners can decide now whether to rebuild or move on with their lives. Those who choose to rebuild now will receive guidance on constructing and elevating their homes and businesses.

Large numbers of homeowners along the Jersey Shore will in effect be forced to raise their homes to protect against future storms after Gov. Christie announced Thursday that the state would adopt the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new floodplain maps. Those whose houses were damaged in Hurricane Sandy have been struggling to figure out how to rebuild, if they can at all, since the release early last month of the new flood maps. The maps are the basis on which federal flood insurance rates are determined, but they are likely to face challenges from local officials and are not expected to be formally certified by FEMA for up to two years.

SEA BRIGHT, N.J. - Sandy, one of the nation's costliest natural disasters, has given new urgency to an age-old debate: Should areas repeatedly damaged by storms be rebuilt or should nature be allowed to reclaim them? The difficulty in getting aid for Sandy victims through Congress - most of a $60 billion package could get final approval next week - highlights the hard choices that have to be made across the country. Federal, state, and local governments all say they do not have unlimited resources to keep writing checks after every storm, and it may be cheaper to buy out vulnerable properties and not rebuild.

President Obama returned to Washington on Sunday and quietly signed legislation authorizing $9.7 billion in preliminary relief for Hurricane Sandy victims. Congress passed the measure Friday while Obama was vacationing with his family in Hawaii. The $9.7 billion for flood insurance is only a piece of the $60 billion sought by states hit hard by the October storm. Northeastern lawmakers, still angry that the full package was sent back to the legislative starting line last week, anticipate a much tougher fight over the remaining aid. New Jersey Gov. Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have called the $9.7 billion "just a down payment," and said in a joint statement, "it is now time to go even further and pass the final and more complete clean disaster-aid bill.