‘Bumpy ride’ awaits flood victims
Sandy survivors have FEMA horror stories
Superstorm Sandy survivors share FEMA horror stories,
Hundreds of Superstorm Sandy victims have a chilling message for those digging out of their flooded homes in Texas, Louisiana and Florida: The hurricane was just the beginning of their misery.
“My suggestion to anybody that was flooded (or) will be flooded: Put on your big girl pants because it’s going to be a long, bumpy ride,” said Diane Mazzacca of Beach Haven West, N.J., who’s still waiting for full reimbursement for the damage to her
1,400-square-foot house nearly five years after Sandy.
Mazzacca and several other survivors from the storm that roared up the Mid-Atlantic coast in October 2012 held a news conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill to vent about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency handled their claims, and they urged Congress to reform the National Flood Insurance Program under FEMA.
The group, members of Stop FEMA Now, offered hands-on advice to residents who endured Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
“You’ve got to do an immediate proof of loss to get your paperwork in order. You will be undercut ( by FEMA). You will be shorted. You’re going to have to file a suit like most of us did here,” said Philip Dodd-Nufrio, a doctor whose home in Seaside Park, N.J., took major damage from Sandy. “Take pictures. Tons of pictures. (And) organize your receipts because you are going to go through a quagmire of government bureaucracy.”
That’s not to mention the flyby-night contractors homeowners looking to rebuild are likely to encounter, members of the group warned.
A spokesperson from FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harvey and Irma are likely to inundate the flood insurance program, which has about $25 billion in debt from paying claims to victims of Hurricane Katrina in
2005, Sandy in 2012 and severe floods in Louisiana last year.
Congress is trying to figure how to reform the program, which covers about 5 million policyholders and is likely to run out of money in October.
An outline of a House bill includes provisions that would call on FEMA to “strengthen taxpayer protections,” in part by charging policyholders more to build a reserve fund.
Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said building standards in flood zones should be strengthened before homeowners become eligible for government-backed insurance.
Lee Cummings, 69, a retiree from Key West who had not been back to see the damage to his home, said the stories he heard from Stop FEMA Now members were unsettling. He worried that Congress would make changes that could make insurance too costly for most people. “The claims payment fiasco that you heard here is just part of it,” he said. “Affordability is another part of it. If you can’t afford the product, it doesn’t do you any good.”
August Matteis Jr., whose law firm represents more than 1,200 Sandy clients who fought FEMA’s initial awards, said more than half have yet to receive final payments. In most cases, even the extra money they got fell short of the reimbursement they sought.