Civic meeting focuses on flood maps

Dozens of Valley Stream residents and others from surrounding communities gathered at the Valley Stream Community Association meeting on Monday to voice their displeasure with, and brainstorm ways to combat, the flood maps that were introduced in September 2009 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The new flood maps added much of Valley Stream to the high-risk flood zone and left many residents with four-figure annual insurance premiums. Community Association members and residents want out of the flood zones by any means necessary.

“In order to get out of the flood zone in Valley Stream you have to be at 11.4 feet,” said Joe Margolin, a Community Association board member and Gibson resident. “However, in Long Beach, a barrier island in the middle of the water, you only have to get to 9 feet.”

Community Association President Carol Crupi urged the people in attendance to write, email and call their elected officials to make it known that people are unhappy about the flood zones. “Effective Jan. 1, 2013, those $400 premiums will disappear,” Crupi said, referring to a two-year reprieve on the higher rates given to homeowners. “My guess is those premiums will go to $2,500-$3,000 a year and your federally backed mortgage company will make you get that insurance. So we really have to put some pressure on our elected officials.”

Greg de Bruin and Christine Gayron, from Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, gave a presentation to those in attendance on how the flood maps came to be. De Bruin highlighted a letter Sen. Charles Schumer wrote to the inspector general.

“FEMA was presented with a cost analysis of $1,082,000 from USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) for data collection specific to Nassau County for the purposes of redrawing flood maps,” the letter read. “After receiving the proposals from USACE for Nassau-specific modeling, FEMA decided to use data already in its possession from Suffolk and apply the Suffolk mapping model to Nassau County.”

De Bruin said that residents who are now in the flood zone could pursue an Elevation Certificate or a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA). To be granted an Elevation Certificate, the floor in a given home must have an elevation of 10 feet 5 inches. De Bruin pointed out that basements count as floors and although an Elevation Certificate cannot get a home out of the flood zone, it can provide a big break on insurance premiums.

A LOMA, if granted, could get a home out of the flood zone and allow the homeowner to drop their insurance policy. A LOMA relies on the Lowest Adjacent Grade (LAG) — if the LAG is greater than the Base Floor Elevation, a LOMA can be issued.

Those in attendance said the market value of their homes have dropped since the new flood maps went into effect, and some residents are having trouble paying their new bills.

One woman who was feeling the effects of flood insurance said she is trying to convert her residence into a two-family home in order to offset her mounting costs. She said her neighbors have been against the idea because they fear their property values would be lowered.

“The new Valley Stream,” Margolin said, “when the FEMA rates go up, will be all two-family houses and rentals because you can’t even imagine how many retirees will do whatever they can to get out.”

Community Association board member Dena Biondo suggested residents put in for tax reductions next year to help offset their costs. “When they start getting less revenue in, they’re going to have to pay attention,” Biondo said of elected officials.

Residents and members of the Community Association criticized the village administration for signing off on the flood maps in 2009. “Two and a half years ago, every single local official in the village, Carolyn McCarthy, had an opportunity to stand up and protest these maps,” Margolin said. “They’re not only not here, they didn’t protest.”

Representing the village at the meeting was Emergency Management Coordinator Frank Roca as the village board was in a work session on Monday evening. Currently on the village’s website, there is an online petition for residents to sign that expresses their disapproval of the flood maps.

Congressional candidate in the 4th District Frank Scaturro asked to the Community Association board to consider making a Freedom of Information Law request in order to show the gaps in FEMA’s analysis. “If you want to overturn that,” Scaturro said, “that’s the evidentiary basis for doing so. You show with their own data that they did not have enough to support their conclusion.”

Cedarhurst resident Tyrone Parker, who is also affected by the new flood maps, said, “We should have a mass meeting of the minds of all these communities. You’re one community — they’re going to pick you off if you go into fight yourself.”

The Community Association is currently looking for more members to help spread its message around Valley Stream, and surrounding communities. “It’s got to be made public — the scam that’s going on — because guaranteed if it’s happening to us it’s happening many other places,” Biondo said.