Water, water everywhere

Q. After a repaving project along the county road we live on, we’ve had nine floods in five years. We’ve appealed to Nassau County to redo the work, which raised the crown of the road. We get approximately 3 feet of water in our driveway, which makes its way into the garage and ultimately our basement. We’ve lost two cars and upward of $75,000 worth of personal items. We can’t use the lower third of our house and have a constant smell of mildew as well as possible mold. We are at our wits’ end with the last flood we had in July. We keep rows of sandbags in front of our garage and one to two rows across our driveway in an attempt to prevent this from happening every time it rains. We’re considering either closing up our garage and regrading the driveway, which had never flooded in the 20 years prior to the repaving, or adding two huge drywells with sump pumps and a French drain to alleviate the situation. Help!

A. I got a sinking feeling after reading your tale of woe. If I didn’t pass your home several times a week (and notice the sandbags), I’d think you live on a lake. Instead, you just happen to live near the ocean. And that may actually be of some help to you. I called and we spoke about your problem with local government and how they have lately been avoiding you, and the condition they had a hand in creating. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, especially if the plan wasn’t thorough, as was this case — made worse by raising the center of your road without providing the drainage necessary to collect and contain the water accumulation. If I researched the records, I would not expect to see arrows directing the water from your roadway to be routed into your home.

The parties most interested in your plight are the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer. Schumer has been vocal about advocating for correcting FEMA flood maps and data to reduce the number of flood-prone areas, or to help reduce flood insurance premiums by getting more accurate data on the projected costs of payouts caused by flooding. Communities are chartered by FEMA and are required to strictly adhere to its guidelines for what is acceptable, insurable construction. FEMA is really a big government insurance company, and if a community isn’t following the agency’s dictates to the letter, they may suffer the loss for their entire municipality of funding to cover repairs after a disaster.

Contact FEMA at (212) 680-3638. Contact Schumer at (202) 224-6542 or www.schumer.senate.gov/ or fax (202) 228-3027. Or move. Good luck!

© 2012 Monte Leeper. Readers are encouraged to send questions to yourhousedr@aol.com, with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.