Don’t Delay, Prepare Now for Storms

NORTH WILDWOOD – The City of North Wildwood hosted a flood hazard prevention program Aug. 14 at North Wildwood Recreation Center.
Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi, who is Cape May County’s Emergency Management director, spoke to the audience about the importance of emergency management.
Pagliughi explained that a municipality must take control of its situation. “Basically, we are the cavalry,” he said. “We cannot expect national organizations, such as FEMA or Red Cross, to get into the state. We have to be able to sustain ourselves for at least 72 to 96 hours.”
Pagliughi wants residents to remember that it only takes one storm to cause massive destruction. “Today is a good day to prepare for the next storm because it’s a nice sunny day,” he told the group, “You don’t want to be doing that when the wind is blowing 70 mph, and the rain’s going sideways, and you’ve got four feet of water in the street.”
Deadliest Storm
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 was the deadliest of the Atlantic hurricane season. In its path 346,000 New Jersey homes were damaged or destroyed. It claimed the lives of 40 New Jersey residents.
The Avalon mayor informed listeners that there are 15 emergency support functions, and each of those functions, which include transportation, communication, public works, firefighting, and hazmat, are delegated to a county department.
A Role for Everyone
“Everyone had a function during that last storm,” he said. “We’re working with the municipalities to organize them the same way. Transportation is a big issue. There are certain people in the town who just do not drive. They don’t have cars; they may be on life support. Many of them are senior citizens who have nowhere to go. We know where these people are, and we pick them up.”
‘We’ve opened up the Woodbine Developmental Center, two Upper Township schools, and a middle school in Middle Township as county shelters. We’ve also built an emergency pet evacuation shelter in Avalon. We read the action reports after Hurricane Katrina. There were 64 confirmed drownings because people didn’t leave their homes because they didn’t think they could bring their pets to the shelter,” he explained. 
Stay Updated
Pagliughi advises residents to stay up-to-date with their local emergency websites. “The Avalon emergency website got 2.4 million hits during Hurricane Sandy,” he shared, “we were streaming live video and pictures. People knew exactly what was going on.”
Emergency Management is also working to create partnerships with county businesses as well as improving coordination throughout the counties.
Inventory Is Important
Also present at the program was Lisa Meola of J.Byrne Agency. Meola, who specializes in condominium insurance and flood insurance, understands the devastation of Hurricane Sandy’s damage firsthand. A resident of Ocean City, Meola remembers packing her children and dogs into her car during evacuation. “I remember leaving and thinking, ‘It’s just stuff.’ But, I really liked my stuff,” she quipped. Meola stressed the importance of preparing an inventory of your belongings now, not post-loss.
“An inventory,” she elaborated, “is everything in the room. Inventory means cataloguing, being organized and keeping a list, photos, or video of all of your belongings. It takes a little bit of the devastation away and makes the process less overwhelming.”
Elevation Certificate
Meola also stressed the importance of an elevation certificate. “An elevation certificate gives us all of the information on your house whether or not you have a garage or a crawl space. Is your home on slabs? Is it elevated on stilts? All of that information determines where your flood insurance rates come from.”
Flood Vents
David Sonner is a certified floodplain manager and technical sales representative for Smart Vent, a leading manufacturer of foundation flood venting systems. Sonner discussed mechanics of a flood vent, sharing Smart Vent’s most popular product with the audience.
“The door releases and opens and lets the water flow through,” he demonstrated, “that’s what makes a flood vent different from an air vent. Flood vents are made to relieve pressure on your foundation. You don’t want water pushing against the house. You don’t want it going around at a high velocity, creating scouring and erosion. You want the water to equalize on both sides,” Sonner said.
Sonner has installed close to 1,000 flood vents in Cape May County in the last 10 years. “Basically, over a 30-year-mortgage on your house, you have a 26 percent chance of getting hit by at least one major storm. Sometimes storms can even occur back to back,” he warned.
Legal Aspects
Andrew Catanese, a Court House-based attorney, and Joshua Katz, partner at Weisbrod, Matteis, and Copley law firm of Washington, D.C., educated the audience about the process of reopening Hurricane Sandy flood claims.
“It’s been close to three years since Hurricane Sandy hit,” Catanese said, “and we’re seeing more and more people who are unable to get back into their houses, and some who are unable to receive the money to fix the damage to their homes.”
Catanese discussed a recent 60 Minutes episode ‘The Storm After The Storm,” which revealed allegations of fraud in the Federal Flood Insurance Program after Hurricane Sandy.
Due to evidence of doctored engineering reports that may have resulted in homeowners receiving less compensation than they were owed, FEMA announced on March 11 that it would allow all 144,000 claimants to resubmit their claims.
Both Catanese and Katz are working with a number of homeowners in New Jersey and New York to assist them in reopening their claims.
Catanese shared that in order to reopen a claim, there are four requirements:
1. You need to have had flood insurance at the time of Hurricane Sandy.
2. You must have sustained flood damage as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
3. You need to have submitted a claim in a timely manner. If you did not, you cannot now.
4. You must have been paid less than your policy limits.
The deadline to reopen your claim is Sept. 15.
“Here’s the critical part of this process,” Catanese added, ‘”FEMA announced that you may submit new information to supplement your claim.” Submitting new information will ensure that FEMA cannot use an old, erroneous report when reassessing your claim.
Few Reopened Claims
As of mid-July, out of the 144,000 original claims, only 9,000 homeowners have reopened their claims.
Katz is passionate about his work because he’s lived through it. “There is money to be had,” he reassured everyone, “I can see it in your faces. I lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I’m not just someone who does this professionally. I remember when I went through it personally, and I remember years after, how tired I was.”
Katz wrapped up the evening by saying, “The end is in sight, and there is hope. You are close. Reopen your claim. Don’t give up. More than likely, there’s more money that is available to you. It takes effort, but it’s there.” 
To contact Kyli Wolfson, email kwolfson@cmcherald.com.