Schumer to FEMA: Start from scratch

Sen. Chuck Schumer says it is time for Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to go back to the drawing board. The senator blasted the agency on Monday at Valley Stream Village Hall, saying that its new flood maps are littered with inaccuracies.

Schumer said he is calling on FEMA to study all areas of Long Island that were added to high-risk flood zones last year, including about 2,000 homes in the village, as well as hundreds of other homes in South Valley Stream. He said a proposed “spot check” of the maps by FEMA simply isn’t good enough.

“Long Islanders are facing thousands of dollars in fees,” Schumer said, “and, in some cases, are being forced out of their homes. I am going to do everything I can to change this.”

Schumer heard from Carol Crupi, representing homeowners in the Gibson neighborhoods, and Linda Kettering, of the Mill Brook Civic Association. Crupi questioned why FEMA raised the minimum elevation for a home to avoid being put in a flood zone from 8 to 11 feet. Schumer said that FEMA has not been able to give him a good reason why this change was made.

Crupi noted that even if there is a new ground study of property elevations, only a few homes in Valley Stream will be removed from the flood zones. She said that the minimum elevation needs to be dropped back to 8 feet. “These maps are inaccurate, and they have to be fixed,” she said.

Kettering said her home in Mill Brook was in a flood zone when she bought it in 1995, but was removed a few years later when FEMA redrew the maps. She said she finds it hard to believe that the neighborhood is suddenly a high-risk area again. As a real estate agent, Kettering testified to the difficulty people are having in selling their homes with the new burden of flood insurance. Potential buyers, she said, are frightened by the high premiums.

Valley Stream’s acting mayor, Joanne Antun, showed Schumer a book of the village board’s minutes from 1938. It included discussions at a board meeting right after the hurricane that year dubbed the “Long Island Express.” There were numerous trees down and some localized flooding from storm water backup, but no coastal flooding, which is what flood insurance is intended for.