The Courier - June 12, 2008

FEMA TALKS TO THE BAYSHORE

FEMA answers citizens?

By MELISSA L. GAFFNEY
Staff Writer

    Residents have heard the story many times: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is "mitigating risk" with its recently updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps.
    Consequently, many Bayshore area residents attended the FEMA Open House on Friday, June 13.
    Representatives from FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, as well as employees from the engineering firms that assisted in the mapping process, staffed stations in the Bayshore Senior Health, Education and Recreation Center, Keansburg.
    There were about 20 stations set up in the Scudiery Room to address Keansburg, Middletown, Union Beach and Hazlet, as well as other Monmouth County towns, on a resident-to-resident basis.
    Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., attended the open house and said it was very valuable that FEMA addressed cases individually. "Ultimately, this is going to come down to [a resident's] house and what the impact is," he said.
    Regional Director Stephen Kempf, of FEMA Region II, said the agency is willing to talk to each and every resident. "[FEMA] has been to these meetings before and there's been scant information," he said. "We're trying to bring that information to [residents] as accurately and understandably as possible."
    Some residents, however, did not agree.
    Alecia Patterson, a Keansburg resident since 2001, said she felt FEMA was giving her the runaround. "No one wants to give you a straight answer," she said.
    Patterson said this was especially true about flood insurance inquiries.
    Keansburg resident Terese Conti said FEMA was not prepared to give her information she needed. Specifically, Conti said FEMA representatives could not give her any news other than the fact her home is now located within a flood hazard zone.
    Anne-Marie Valente, also of Keansburg, said there were many families in the borough that were clueless and given no information from FEMA. "Keansburg is a poor town," she said. "I don't think it should be treated as such."
    Valente said residents moved to Keansburg because they could afford it. Conti said that, now, FEMA is throwing those people out with mandates such as flood insurance.
    Both Valente's and Conti's properties had not been in a flood hazard zone prior to the re-evaluation of the maps.
    Former Keansburg Councilman Jack Early, a Keansburg resident of 44 years, was also told he was now in a flood hazard zone.
    Early said FEMA claims his property is in a hazard zone; a property Early also said was situated higher than other parts of his street. Notably, Early said other areas of his street are not designated in that same hazard zone.
    Yvonne Fulchiron, of Leonardo, said she, too, was now in a hazard zone, but that her residence was not mortgaged.
    "I probably will not get [flood insurance]," she said. "I don't think [FEMA] identified any new risk. It seems [so sudden]. Why now?"
    Fulchiron said the whole situation was not a "fun thing."
    Estelle Beswick, of Union Beach, said the open house was very helpful but she did not think her home was in a flood zone, according to what a FEMA representative had told her.
    Kempf said the agency is responsible for making residents aware of their risk vulnerabilities. "[FEMA did] that by developing the new maps and using new technology," he said.
    Beswick said the representative could not actually locate her street on the new, digital maps.
    "Those are the exceptions," Kempf concluded. "Not the rules."

Walsh: Open house was 'a better event'

By MELISSA L GAFFNEY
Stall Writer

    Middletown Democrat for Township Committee Patricia Walsh attended the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Open House on Friday, June 13, at the Bayshore Senior Health, Education and Recreation Center in Keansburg.
    Walsh said the event was much more in tune with helping residents locate their homes on the new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) rather than just scare them.
    "I have to compliment FEMA," she said. "[The agency] has done a really great job here."
    Patricia Griggs, a FEMA Natural Hazards Program specialist, said residents were taken to stations and given a copy of the digital FIRM showing their properties.
    Griggs said the printed map would be zoomed into a specific grid, and that residents would be able to see whether or not they were in a flood hazard zone, according to FEMA's re-evaluation.
    Walsh said she went to a station and a FEMA representative was able to locale her property and explain the new zones to her.
    ''[The open house] provided exact information to the residents about where they're [located on the maps]," she said. "[Representatives looked] up specific pieces of property."
    Walsh noted that this individual assistance was not offered during the last two meetings FEMA attended in the Bayshore, Middletown and Hazlet, respectively. "[The open house] is much better," she said.
    Walsh said FEMA representatives were very helpful. "It's a little scary when you find out your property is in the zone," she said. "It's still a little reassuring to [hear] that somebody who knows what they're talking about is identifying it as such." Walsh said she was glad to know she could - and would - ask more questions, as part of her property is located in a flood hazard zone.
    She also said she thought Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., did a great job probing FEMA and coordinating the open house.
    Walsh said the event was much more geared to servicing the constituency than a petition that says, "Hey, somebody should do something about this."
    Walsh concluded, "That's what [Pallone's job] is. He's really done a magnificent job putting things together and working with FEMA rather than playing 'Gotcha.' "