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Mostly Cloudy Where was the tidal wave?
Hurricane Irene came and went, and while the storm took down trees and power lines, one thing it didn’t leave behind was widespread flooding in Valley Stream.
Residents in the high-risk flood zone, specifically Gibson, won’t be making any claims based on the flood insurance many were required to purchase in 2009 when the new Federal Emergency Management Agency maps went into effect. In fact, residents report, the community fared quite well in the storm.
“The worst of the storm seems to be trees toppling,” said Carol Crupi, a Gibson Boulevard resident who has been leading the local fight against the new flood maps. “I observed myself that there was no flooding. I drove through several streets in Gibson. There wasn’t even puddles.”
Joseph Margolin, who ran for mayor in March promising to make the reversal of the flood maps his top priority, said he drove around his community after the storm passed and found no flooding. “We were supposed to have a storm surge come up and flood us,” Margolin said. “We had nothing.”
Residents say they would use Hurricane Irene as proof that FEMA flood maps are wrong, and that the science used to create the maps was faulty. Earlier this year, Sen. Chuck Schumer visited Valley Stream and said that the Nassau County maps were based on a study conducted in Suffolk County. “They based our status on a study that we all know is erroneous,” Margolin said. “They have no historical data. They have nothing.”
Hurricane Irene was predicted by many weather officials to be a 100-year storm. It is that 1 percent chance of coastal flooding that typically gets property included in the high-risk flood zone.
Village Trustee Vincent Grasso, executive director of the Nassau County Bridge Authority, was monitoring the Atlantic Beach Bridge during the storm. The storm surge didn’t impact the bridge, he said, let alone his home in Valley Stream, in the flood zone, five miles away.
Grasso said that some people in Valley Stream did have water in their basements, mostly the result of groundwater seeping up, which wouldn’t be covered by flood insurance anyway. “It was clearly not Jamaica Bay pushing up from flooding,” he said.
Jack Wagner, who has lived in Gibson for 30 years, said that he lives right across from the creek on South Drive, and even that wasn’t full during the storm. Like his neighbors, Wagner said that Hurricane Irene should be all the evidence FEMA needs to remove the community from the flood maps. “If the events in 2011, with record rainfall and a hurricane that required evacuations, combined with south Valley Stream not experiencing any problems, what further proof is needed?” he asked.
Lorraine Tammaro, who lives on Birch Lane, said the homes across the street from her, which are on the creek that feeds into Jamaica Bay, didn’t experience any flooding, nor did her house. “Valley Stream definitely does not belong in a flood zone,” she said. “FEMA made a huge mistake and will not admit it.”
Crupi and Margolin are urging Gibson residents to contact their federal representatives — Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy — to tell them about the lack of flooding. Crupi said she has already supplied many of her neighbors with their phone numbers, email and mailing addresses. She wants them to contact those officials often, “and just make it generally known that we would like to have this resolved sooner rather than later.”
Angie Hu, a spokeswoman for Gillibrand, said the senator’s office has already received several calls from Valley Stream residents. She said that while Gillibrand’s first priority is to secure funding for those areas of New York that did experience flooding, she will look into the issue in Valley Stream.
Hu said that in the past, Gillibrand has been supportive of legislation that would give homeowners relief from high insurance premiums.
Chris English, a Drew Street resident, said she called the Town of Hempstead, Assemblyman Brian Curran’s office and FEMA to report on the lack of flooding. “We got nothing. I didn’t even have a puddle in front of my house,” English said. “I wanted to let them know that everything was fine here.”
Margolin said he has already contacted federal officials, and that he plans to attend this month’s village board meeting as well. He wants to keep pressure on the village government, he said, and will request that they write a letter to FEMA seeking to get Valley Stream out of the flood zone. “Whether they’re going to do something like that, I don’t know,” Margolin said. “I’m going to ask them.”
Crupi said that no study conducted by FEMA should be able to stand up to the actual results of a storm hitting Valley Stream. “I would never wish this storm upon anybody,” she said. “As devastating as this storm was for many, many people, it was a help in our fight against FEMA.”
