New FEMA maps could change flood zone risks

Congress is ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency to redraw the flood maps it enacted in 2009, which could either raise or lower flood insurance premiums for residents of Oceanside and Island Park.

The new maps must take into account “local data,” according to legislation that was passed June 29 by the House of Representatives and Senate. The bill is largely based on the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011 that was passed by the House, and also includes provisions from a separate Senate bill introduced last year.

Residents in high-risk flood zones with federally backed mortgages were required to buy flood insurance, with premiums nearing $2,000 per year.

Sen. Charles Schumer, who had previously called for flood-map reform, said the legislation is a win for homeowners who have been “crushed by flood insurance costs.”

“FEMA will now be required to use locally obtained data from Valley Stream and local Nassau County communities that better reflect the realities on the ground,” Schumer said. “We’ve said all along FEMA needs to do better. This bill will require them to do so.”

New maps won’t guarantee that any areas would be removed from the flood zone, but the maps would be based on community-specific data. That could include elevation data for specific neighborhoods as well as historical flooding records. A study of Jamaica Bay, which is being undertaken to map the flood zones for Queens and Brooklyn, could also be factored in.

“In some situations, clients will be paying more, and in others, clients will be paying less,” said Toby Pilato, CEO of Evergreen North Insurance Agency. “Due to all the recent storm activity, waters have reached new areas that weren’t determined in the past. It’s more to benefit the client, so they are aware that they are in a possible flood zone.

Evergreen North provides insurance for residents along the east coast from New York to Florida, and has an office in Oceanside located at 3332 Long Beach Rd.

“Most clients in a low-risk flood zone may feel they don’t need to purchase [insurance] but in my perspective the changes may force them to buy coverage, but will protect them in the end when the water rises again,” Pilato said. “People really need to come in and have explained to them what happened in the seventies and what is happening now with changing weather patterns. Low risk doesn’t mean no risk.”

The legislation will also give municipalities a chance to challenge the new maps when they are eventually released. According to Valley Stream Mayor Ed Fare, when the current maps were revealed in 2009, FEMA essentially told towns and villages that if the maps weren’t adopted, those communities would be ineligible for emergency aid.

The flood zone designation isn’t what concerns Fare; the four-figure annual insurance premiums do. He said that flood insurance should not be required even if a home is in a designated flood zone. “Let the homeowners take responsibility for their homes,” he said. “If they want to buy $20 million worth of flood insurance, let them. If they want to buy no flood insurance, let them.”

Mike Morey, a spokesman for Schumer, said it is unknown when the new maps will be released. The process could take up to 18 months, he said, and depends on FEMA’s access to local data. 

Regardless of the time frame, Morey said, the legislation takes into account the will of the people. “It’s new maps with local data,” he said, “which is what everyone wanted.” 

Hope for lower rates

Homeowners renewing their flood insurance policies in 2011 and this year were able to buy it at the Preferred Risk Policy rate of about $400 per year. That lower rate expires Dec. 31.

Schumer announced that the legislation will phase in the higher insurance premiums over five years. He said that this would provide homeowners temporary relief from the high cost. “While I will continue to press to remove every unjustified structure from the maps,” Schumer said, “in the meanwhile, anything that we can do to lighten the load just a little for our struggling middle-class homeowners is progress.”

Schumer, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, is also calling on FEMA to extend the Preferred Risk Policy rates indefinitely until new maps are released. 

“That’s up to FEMA,” Morey said, “and that’s what we’ve been pressing FEMA to actually do.”