NEW YORK RISING

State offers funds to elevate homes

Cuomo announces program for Long Islanders

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After Danny Ehrick’s home flooded in Hurricane Sandy, the 11-year Freeporter immediately cleaned his tools. Ehrick said he knew he would need them to gut the first floor of his Florence Avenue canal-front home.

In the weeks after the storm, Ehrick said he thought about what he could do to minimize damage in the event of another such tempest. He realized he needed to elevate his home.

“I was not going to just patch up the damage and allow Mother Nature to turn my life upside down again, ” he said. “Instead, I wanted to make my home stronger with the next storm in mind.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo encouraged Long Islanders to consider Ehrick’s plan when he announced the state’s optional home elevation program at a July 30 news conference at the Freeporter’s home.

Cuomo said homeowners across Long Island would now be eligible to have the costs associated with elevating their homes entirely reimbursed by New York state if they reside within the 100-year flood plain, or if the Federal Emergency Management Agency has certified their home as a repeated loss. Noting that 6,500 Long Island homes lie within the flood plain, Cuomo said that residents within this special zone should consider raising their houses because Hurricane Sandy will likely not be the last time the area is hit by extreme weather.

“Don’t assume Sandy isn’t going to revisit, even if it is by a different name,” he said. “I would assume the opposite, and it is our challenge to be better prepared. Sandy was a point in time that calls for us to readjust and revaluate what were doing, how we develop and how we build.”

Cuomo explained that, in his three-and-a-half-year tenure as governor, he has seen 11 federally declared weather disasters in New York – more than his father, Mario, experienced in his 12 years leading the state. He attributed the increase to changing weather patterns, which he urged residents living near the state shorelines to think about when considering elevating their homes.

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