Wildwood Residents Question FEMA Officials

WILDWOOD — After an almost-two week delay because of the federal government shutdown, Wildwood residents were finally able to listen to presentations by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials during a Nov. 1 meeting held in Lower Township’s Town Hall.
The meeting, open to all Cape May County residents, allowed property owners to ask questions regarding the new Advisory Based Flood Elevation (ABFE) maps. Under the new ABFE maps, owners whose properties have been placed in higher risk zones face an eventual possibility of higher flood insurance premiums if they opt not to raise their homes to the newly proposed elevations and those elevations are not changed on subsequent maps.
Robert Geist, a representative of Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2), told the audience the congressman has been involved in the process since early December, 2012 when the first ABFE maps were released.
“Congressman LoBiondo has met with the FEMA administrator, Craig Fugate, in Washington D.C. at the beginning of this year and said to him that he demanded that the best available science would be used to make the most accurate maps possible,” Geist told the audience. “We’ve had some successes there and we’ve also had some things that we’re still in process. We’re working with FEMA and local municipalities like yours.”
Geist also said LoBiondo is working in conjunction with 49 other members of Congress in a bipartisan effort to introduce legislation that would “significantly delay the increases and the timing of those flood insurance rate increases.” He said people in southern New Jersey, as well as across the nation, should have a “more gradual transition into something that is a more actuarially stable system than what has been proposed.”
According to FEMA officials the decision to revisit the flood maps was made in 2008, not as a direct result of Superstorm Sandy, which affected the New Jersey coast in 2012.
“Every seven years to years in FEMA’s process we change or update those maps in different areas around the country,” FEMA Risk Map Outreach Specialist Mark Rollins. “We do it when Congress tells us to do it.” He added “In 2008 Congress asked or demanded, told us, to redo the Jersey shore from Cape May all the way up to Montague, N.Y.
“If Sandy had not hit, we would not have had a reason to release where we were in the study,” said Rollins. The ABFE maps were released early to give direction to property owners seeking guidance to rebuild after Sandy. “That’s what the ABFE’s were about. It caused a lot of confusion and we knew it would cause a lot of confusion in the community. They were overstated, meaning they were conservative, which means the V-zones were extended beyond what we thought they were going to be but we did it on purpose. The elevations were higher than what we thought they were going to be.”
Rollins said in June of this year FEMA started “rolling out” the preliminary work maps. “That’s the only map that is ordinarily given. That’s the first information that everybody would have gotten.”
Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) have yet to released. Once they are released, meetings would be held and comment would be heard from the public and municipalities, said Ken Gangai, a FEMA costal engineer contractor.
Once FIRMs are released, FEMA will continue to work with the public and the communities to listen to comment. At some point after that, a 90-day appeal period will kick in where property owners can submit information to FEMA and, if appropriate, make changes to the maps.
“After those 90 days and all those appeals are reviewed and resolved, we’ll go ahead and issue a letter of final determination. That starts the process to make those maps final and make them effective. That when insurance starts being based on those maps,” explained Gangai. He noted the time frame between the appeal process and the new maps coming to fruition takes between one to two years.
The information that has been provided on the current preliminary work maps has no effect on flood insurance rates. “It’s not the regulatory product yet, it’s just a draft,” said Gangai.
He added FEMA wants to have a dialog with the community to “get it right” and have the correct information on the maps.
A resident of Taylor Avenue asked FEMA officials about infrastructure. “Part of our flooding issue is not just the fact that we get a lot of rain but the infrastructure that causes a lot of the flooding for the Wildwoods. Wildwood is a unique situation when it comes to the velocity zone and the width of the island, considering our extensive beach. Are they going to be taking some special considerations to Wildwood’s situation when it comes down to the final maps for the flood zones and velocity zones and our premiums?”
Gangai responded that in the new analysis, “I think you’ll see much reduced V zones. I’m not saying they’re completely gone. There are some areas that have certain open water areas that have effect. You might still see some V zones in some of those areas on the preliminary work maps.”
The city resident queried FEMA about funding to raise a home, if it is required. “The funding issue with respect to FEMA is run through the state,” Rollins responded. “Most federal money, whether it’s through HUD (Housing and Urban Development) or through FEMA with respect to mitigating this disaster has a New Jersey Department of Community Affairs oversight. There is funding for mitigating with respect to buyouts and lifting, elevating homes and relocating homes.”
“No one is going to require you to raise your house unless it was substantially damaged,” said a FEMA representative. “However, if you are below the BFEs (Base Flood Elevation) when the new maps come out and they become effective maps, which is probably in 18 -24 months, and your house is below the base flood elevation, you will pay higher premiums than someone who is at or above.”