Aster Street Residents Meet With FEMA

Residents of Aster Street in Massapequa Park who are drowning in high flood insurance premiums finally got a chance to meet with officials from the agency that listed their homes in a high risk flood zone.

Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives  sat down with the homeowners at Village Hall Friday night, and got an earful about the problem.

"It would be the greatest thing in the world to be off the flood zone map," said David Salvadori, who's lived on Aster Street since 1997. "I pay $1,400 a year that I never expected to be paying when I bought my home. It doesn't make any sense." 

The homeowners are angry because they found themselves on FEMA'a  high risk flood zone map in 2009, despite the fact that they live in the northern part of the village far away from the coastline.

Although homeowners are not required to buy flood insurance, many are forced to as a condition of their mortgage.

Salvadori  also worries about the long term effects of the high risk designation. "If I were to sell my house, it knocks the value down,"  he said.

FEMA officials defended their actions saying  that with aging flood control infrastructure and outdated flood maps across the U.S., Congress mandated that the agency update the maps.

The effort, known as the Flood Map Modernization used the latest data and technology to identify current flood risks, they said.

Margery Weinroth, an Aster Street resident since 1964, thinks the agency ought to take another look at their work.

"FEMA has to fix this now.," she said. "The flood designations need to be changed. The insurance premiums are not fair to the residents."

During the meeting, Richard Einhorn, of  FEMA promised residents that he would speak directly to the agency's  engineer to look into this problem. An engineer can restudy the matter  and that could potentially lead to the homeowners  being taken off the flood zone area. But he also told the residents that fixing this matter takes time.

Massapequa Park Mayor James Altadonna is also willing to lend a helping hand and assist FEMA. "We need relief to help these residents and we need to resolve this problem sooner rather than later. The village will work with FEMA to help the residents," he said.

In an attempt to relieve the financial pressures of the insurance premiums, Einhorn suggested that residents sign up for the Preferred Risk Policy. Effective January 2011, it will significantly reduce the insurance premiums for two years.

The residents recently met with Sen. Charles Schumer who called on FEMA to allow them to sign up before January.

Aides to Rep. Peter King  (R-N.Y.) encouraged the homeowners to enroll. A homeowner enrolled with the PRP should see significant savings, according to FEMA.  For example, a property owner who has a home without a basement will pay $343 for $2000,000 in building and $80,000 in contents coverage for a PRP versus more than $1,400 for a standard rated policy.

Disgruntled and dissatisfied, residents said they will continue to protest and voice their concerns until FEMA removes Aster Street in Massapequa Park from the flood zone map.