Hurricane Sandy

Woodbridge Homeowners in Sandy-Devastated Areas Just Can't Catch a Break

If it's not the requirements you rebuild your flooded home to 13 feet over grade, then it's the tax increases you get on the improvements that's bleeding Woodbridge residents dry.

Homeowners in Woodbridge Township who live in flood-prone areas had a lot to say about the cost of being hit by both FEMA, flood insurance increases, and hurricanes, and it's not pretty. Residents of the perpetually waterlogged Watson Avenue in Woodbridge Proper vented on Woodbridge Patch's Facebook page, after reading a story that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has increased the Advisory Base Flood Elevations - the height from grade from which devastated homes can be rebuilt - from 9 feet, before Hurricane Sandy, to the current 13 feet.  For these homeowners, it's another disaster. "We are having so much trouble with our insurance just for repairs, that I have no idea how will we pay to raise our foundation now," said Debbie …

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Hurricane Sandy

The Cost of Rebuilding After Hurricane Sandy

Homeowners in Woodbridge's flood-prone areas are going to have an unpleasant surprise when they see the cost of flood insurance with FEMA's newly update flood zones.

The effects of Hurricane Sandy on parts of Woodbridge are readily evident. Just take a drive in the Watson Avenue section of the township. Months after the hurricane struck, homes are still unoccupied. You can see which ones by the bright orange stickers on the doors, labeling them unsafe for occupancy. You can see the gaping holes where solid foundations once stood. What the future of the area will be after Hurricane Sandy, though, is still being pieced together. Two things are for certain: homes that have to be demolished will be rebuilt in a far different way then they originally were constructed, and homeowners who resist will pay a fortune in flood insurance premiums, if they can rebuld at all. The Federal Emergency Management Agency…

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FEMA Flood Maps to Include Elevation Increase of One to Five Feet on Average

The Advisory Base Flood Elevations will be published Saturday morning. FEMA hosted a teleconference Friday to explain the motivation behind the reports.

UPDATE: New "Advisory Base Flood Elevations" are now posted to this interactive map. More resources are available on FEMA's ABFE page for New Jersey and New York. __________ New maps being released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency Saturday will recommend that residents in flood zones in 10 counties and 194 communities throughout the state consider raising their homes anywhere between one and five feet on average, FEMA officials said Friday. The maps, part of the agency’s Advisory Base Flood Elevations, are being published online Saturday morning and will likely be used by communities to help establish standards during the rebuilding process following the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. Although the data used in the storm does not…

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Dozer Dave

6:42 pm on Friday, February 22, 2013

George I thought you were super rich?   more ›