Are you in the zone?

More than 500 homes have been added to the higher-risk flood zones in East Rockaway, which will have residents scrambling to purchase insurance — at a steep cost if they don’t do it before Sept. 11. This nearly doubles the number of village residences that are deemed to be in danger of flooding.

The Village board approved the new Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance rate maps with “a gun held to our heads,” said Mayor Ed Sieban, adding. ”It’s clear that the village is not in agreement with these maps. You can’t just draw jagged lines.”

On the advice of Building Superintendent Dennis McCabe, Sieban and the other members of the board have voiced their disapproval and have appealed the changes twice since they saw the new maps in 2008. Both appeals have been turned down by FEMA.

“We feel the maps should be restudied, and they should use local data from the Western Bays of Nassau County,” McCabe said, visibly angry. “[East Rockaway has] a greatly different terrain that what FEMA based [the new maps] on.”

McCabe said that the maps were drawn “with magic” and not locally generated data. FEMA engineers, he said, studied the barrier beaches in Moriches Inlet — about 55 miles east of East Rockaway — and Montauk, and used that information as a “blanket” map for Nassau County. “We have many channels and marshes,” he said, “and we have Long Beach ... The Moriches have sand dunes. FEMA should have studied it correctly ... [and] given us some honest local data.”

Although McCabe agrees that the old maps were outdated, he said that the new maps are not the answer. “Under the new guidelines, even if you aren’t in a flood zone, and you choose not to buy insurance, you won’t get help anymore from the federal government if you have flood damage.”

Deputy Mayor Richard Meagher said that after the second appeal was turned down by FEMA, the village was warned, in “strong language,” that if it did not comply with the new maps, FEMA would suspend the community from the program altogether, leaving even those who were covered without flood insurance. “We have exhausted our ability to appeal this, and we are grudgingly approving this,” Meagher said. “We don’t want to hurt those who already have flood insurance.”

East Rockaway’s Allstate agent, Anselm Lowe, said that he was getting many phone calls about the new maps and questions about the necessity for flood insurance. “If you are not in the high-risk, you can still get a good price for insurance if it’s written before Sept. 11,” Lowe said, “but it’s going to be expensive for those in the A-E, or high-risk, category. It’s still going to cost [just over] $2,000 for those people.” Mortgage holders for homeowners in the high-risk area will require that they have flood insurance.

McCabe pointed out that along with the new FEMA maps, there will be new building codes. “It’s a double-header,” he said. “New homes in the high-risk zone may not be able to have basements, and there are new height requirements. There will be tremendous changes for everyone.”

The mayor and members of the board agreed that they are disappointed that other villages and Nassau County officials did not join them in this fight. “If others would have [appealed],” said Trustee Irene Villacci, “then we would have had a better chance.”

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