MOONACHIE – U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez announced Sept. 18 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to extend the deadline for Sandy victims to have their claims reviewed until Oct. 15.
After evidence emerged of widespread lowballing and potential fraud, and at the urging of Menendez and the New Jersey Congressional delegation, FEMA agreed in March to reopen all 142,000 flood insurance claims filed by victims of Superstorm Sandy, not currently in litigation, including 70,000 in New Jersey, according to a release.
“I have spent the past year and a half fighting to reform the NFIP’s broken claims process and give Sandy victims, who faithfully paid their insurance premiums, a second chance to finally get what they deserve,” stated Menendez, speaking at Joseph Street Park in Moonachie, a community hit especially hard during the Superstorm.
“I’m incredibly pleased to announce that FEMA has agreed to extend the deadline for Sandy victims to have their claims re-opened and reviewed.”
Menendez was joined by Tess Tomasi of the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Sue Marticek of the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group and Sonny Markoski of Long Beach Island, who, along with his wife Dawn, will be receiving $56,000 in additional money as a result of their claims review.
MOONACHIE, NJ – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez today announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to extend the deadline for Sandy victims to have their claims reviewed until October 15. After evidence emerged of widespread lowballing and potential fraud, and at the urging of Sen. Menendez and the New Jersey Congressional delegation, FEMA agreed in March to reopen all 142,000 flood insurance claims filed by victims of Superstorm Sandy, not currently in litigation, including 70,000 in New Jersey.
“I have spent the past year and a half fighting to reform the NFIP’s broken claims process and give Sandy victims, who faithfully paid their insurance premiums, a second chance to finally get what they deserve,” said Sen. Menendez, speaking at Joseph Street Park in Moonachie, a community hit especially hard during the Superstorm. “I’m incredibly pleased to announce that FEMA has agreed to extend the deadline for Sandy victims to have their claims re-opened and reviewed.”
Sen. Menendez was joined by Tess Tomasi of the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Sue Marticek of the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group and Sonny Markoski of Long Beach Island, who, along with his wife Dawn, will be receiving $56,000 in additional money as a result of their claims review.
“I understand why many families have been skeptical about making the call,” Menendez added. “You’re tired and frustrated and reopening your claim may seem like reopening an old wound that still hasn’t healed. But Sonny and Dawn Markoski would not be getting an additional $56,000 – money they should have gotten the first time around – if they had not taken a second chance.”
Sandy homeowners got some good news from the federal government, one that could mean more money for their bottom line.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officially announced that it has decided to forgive up to $20,000 in new insurance money per homeowner that overlaps with rebuilding grants.
“HUD’s action to provide relief to the vast majority of those who are concerned about potential duplicative benefits will encourage even more policyholders who may have been initially reluctant to enter the process to do so,” said Roy Wright, FEMA’s deputy associate administrator for insurance and mitigation, in a statement.
As a result of that action, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pushed back the deadline to request a Sandy Claims Review to Oct. 15. Before issuing the last-minute extension, FEMA wanted some assurances that giving homeowners more time to to sign up for a second look at their superstorm Sandy flood insurance claims would actually persuade some skeptics to enroll.
That bar was met when HUD announced the major policy change on how it will treat newly released insurance money and that money’s relationship to rebuilding grants, such as New Jersey’s RREM program.
Homeowners who receive more than $20,000 may still be able to keep it and their Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) grant, provided they can prove that all of it is necessary to their rebuilding or elevation project..
“These families have suffered enough and shouldn’t be further victimized through no fault of their own,” said Harriet Tregoning, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. “We have a larger responsibility to facilitate recovery, not to hinder it just because these families didn’t receive sufficient flood insurance payments.”
Three out of four payments from the claims review are under that $20,000 threshold, according to HUD. If someone receives more than $20,000 through the claims review they will have a chance to demonstrate that the payment is being used to rebuild and shouldn’t be recaptured, the release says.
Lawmakers are asking for the deadline to be pushed back so that more people can learn about and be persuaded to sign up for a review of their Sandy flood insurance claims.
When asked by the Asbury Park Press whether or not HUD’s announcement changes anything, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs spokeswoman Lisa Ryan said “Our position remains the same.”
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Sandy flood claims deadline is today: 5 things to know
The news of HUD’s shift and the deadline’s extension was first broadcast Tuesday night by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s office.
“We still have a lot of work to do before we are fully recovered, but tonight is a good night for those still struggling to rebuild,” Menendez said in a statement.
FEMA signaled in March that it intended to develop a process by which as many as 142,000 homeowners in the Sandy-damaged zone, including up to 74,000 in New Jersey, could have their flood claims looked at again.
FEMA opened the process on May 18 and then later set Sept. 15 as a deadline for opting-in. As the cut-off approached, relatively few policyholders had signed up and advocates and lawmakers at all levels of government had begun pushing FEMA for an extension. However, FEMA gave no public indication that a postponement was forthcoming as the clocked ticked down.
Maryann Flanigan of Legal Services of New Jersey speaks to a handful of residents who showed up for a free Hurricane Sandy flood insurance clinic in Union Beach in June. (Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Since March, when FEMA announced it would reopen claims for Sandy victims who believed they were short-changed by flood insurance carriers, there has been a concerted effort to get people on board.
Meetings have been held in town halls, churches, backyards and banquet rooms. Information sessions have been hosted by politicians, law firms, nonprofits and private citizens.
Now, as the Sept. 15 deadline approaches, that effort almost feels like a “get-out-the-vote” movement. There was meeting Thursday night at the Forked River United Methodist Church; another today at Berkeley Township’s rec center.
Sue Marticek, executive director of the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group, has run sessions as far north as the Union Beach council chambers and as far south as the Cape May Tabernacle United Methodist Church.
“I would encourage any Sandy victim who feels they were lowballed to contact FEMA.” — Sen. Robert Menendez.
George Kasimos, who founded Stop FEMA Now to fight the agency’s post-Sandy flood elevation maps, has hosted information sessions on the patio of a private home, a firehouse, an ambulance station and a café.
Rescue workers using a boat to evacuate residents on Eckel Road in Little Ferry on Oct. 30, 2012, after Superstorm Sandy caused flooding.
With a mid-September deadline fast approaching, victims of Superstorm Sandy who believe they were underpaid by their flood insurance companies are running out of time to reopen their claims.
After allegations surfaced that engineering reports had been doctored to minimize insurance payouts to Sandy victims, the Federal Emergency Management Agency took the unprecedented step of allowing policyholders to request another review of their claims.
RECORD FILE PHOTO
Storm damage on Oct. 31, 2012, in Seaside Heights.
FEMA started sending out letters to about 142,000 policyholders in May. As of Friday, 19,892 had either contacted the Sandy review call center or downloaded an application. Nearly 13,000 had been approved for review, according to FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre. The deadline is next Tuesday.
Lemaitre said FEMA was encouraged by the figures and noted that while there is evidence that fraud and underpayment occurred, there are also many people who either received the maximum benefit allowed or have reported being satisfied with their payout. He also pointed to a Senate Banking Committee report issued in June that found no evidence of “systematic underpayment” by insurers.
But lawmakers and advocates say that homeowners have been reluctant to participate in the process, either wary of getting involved in yet another bureaucratic system or fearful that the review will actually have a negative effect, forcing them to give back money or be subject to additional regulations.
“Nobody wants to do it,” said Tess Tomasi of the Bergen County Long-Term Recovery Committee, which provides resources to help those affected by Sandy. “The No. 1 thing people say is, ‘I’ve had enough. I can’t take it anymore.’”
Firm raided
Concerns about the FEMA-run National Flood Insurance Program, which provides flood insurance through private companies to homeowners, renters and business owners, have been bubbling up for months, but it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that things came to a head. The New York Times and CBS’ “60 Minutes” both published investigations into the engineering report allegations, and in February, investigators from the New York State Attorney General’s Office raided the headquarters of a Long Island engineering firm suspected of fraud.
Then in March, less than two weeks after the “60 Minutes” report aired, FEMA agreed to allow policyholders affected by Sandy to reopen their flood insurance claims.
More than 140,000 flood insurance claims were filed after the storm, including about 2,000 in Bergen County. All policyholders were eligible for the new review, except those who had filed suit or who have already received the maximum benefit permitted under their policy.
Lori and Bill Scheffler, who were living in Montvale at the time of the storm, are among those who have decided to again try their luck with FEMA. The Schefflers’ Jersey Shore home in Beach Haven West was significantly damaged in Sandy, torn off its foundation by the storm surge, said Lori Scheffler, 58.
They received about $60,000 from their flood insurer. They were insured for $250,000, said Lori.
But even as they go through the process, the Schefflers – who have since moved to the Shore permanently — say they are not holding out much hope.
“If we get money from FEMA, that’s a bonus,” said Lori Scheffler. “But we’re not counting on it.”
The mayor of Little Ferry, which was also hard hit by Sandy, said that while some residents were unhappy with their payout, he did not believe many had applied to reopen their claim.
“It’s not an overwhelming majority of people,” said Mayor Mauro Raguseo.
But advocates are urging residents to take advantage of this unique opportunity, arguing that they could be leaving millions of dollars on the table.
Sue Marticek, executive director of the Ocean County Long-Term Recovery Group, has been a big proponent of the claims review. Her group has run multiple clinics to assist homeowners, and in 90 percent of the cases she has seen, policyholders appear to be owed money, in some cases a significant amount, she said.
“This is not a gift. This is money that people are owed in a contract,” said Marticek. “They paid money for coverage, and they did not get what’s rightfully owed to them.”
Several concerns
Homeowners have hesitated to get involved for a variety of reasons, according to advocates. Some have worried that any additional insurance payments they receive could affect the funding they already got through the state’s primary rebuilding program, the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation, or RREM, program.
The state program is intended to bridge the gap between the cost of repairing or rebuilding a home, and any funding – including insurance payouts – that a homeowner receives toward that work. So the fear was that if a homeowner got additional flood insurance money, then that state funding would have to be repaid.
If a policyholder in the rebuilding program receives additional flood insurance proceeds, either through the claims review or a legal settlement with FEMA, the state will not try to recoup that money, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs, which administers the building program. The state has informed FEMA that it does not want to be included as a payee on any flood insurance check, and, if either FEMA or a homeowner sends the state a check with additional flood insurance money, it will be returned to the sender, said the spokeswoman, Lisa Ryan.
Another concern has been the impact on a property’s damage assessment. If a homeowner’s damages are considered more than half of what the home is assessed for, the house is classified as “substantially damaged” – a designation that requires homeowners to comply with FEMA flood zones and height requirements when they rebuild and, in many cases, to elevate their houses.
Homeowners worried that a successful appeal of their payout, then, would result in a reclassification of their home.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has said that he received assurance from the head of the National Flood Insurance Program, Roy Wright, that any supplemental payments received through the claims review process would not affect a property’s damage assessment.
Given the initial confusion, New Jersey’s congressional delegation called on FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate last month to extend the deadline to request a review by three months.
“Extending the deadline to Dec. 15 would give Sandy victims the time necessary to understand this complex process and decide whether or not it is in their best interest to participate,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Fugate.
The deadline remains unchanged, Lemaitre said in an interview last week. He added, “We’re going to remain laser-focused from now until then to make sure those who feel they were underpaid at least register with us.”
Lemaitre said FEMA has been working with media throughout the region, put out public service announcements in both Spanish and English, collaborated with lawmakers to get the word out and participated in town hall meetings with local officials. He noted that critics of the National Flood Insurance Program, including the group Stop FEMA Now, have also been encouraging people to sign up.
FEMA has tried to make the claims process easy to navigate, said Lemaitre. Policyholders will be assigned an adjuster who will stay with them throughout the process, rather than be bounced from person to person. The agency has also created a neutral third-party arbitration system for those who disagree with their claim decision, said Lemaitre.
The agency’s main goal, he said, is to restore trust in the insurance program. Officials want to remove any doubt, he said, in the minds of policyholders that they were paid less than they were due, he said.
“We owe it to our policyholders that they get every dollar they deserve under their policies,” said Lemaitre.
TOMS RIVER — Ninety percent of the superstorm Sandy victims who have sought assistance with reopening their flood insurance claims seem to be owed some money, the head of Ocean County’s Long-Term Recovery Group said Thursday.
“Many are owed substantial amounts of money,” the group’s Executive Director, Sue Marticek, said at the monthly meeting of the long-term recovery group. “It could be that game-changer that determines whether people get home or not.”
Marticek’s group has been holding clinics throughout the state aimed at helping residents decide whether to reopen their flood insurance claim through FEMA. The long-term recovery group has so far reviewed 150 cases, and 90 percent of them appear to be owed money, Marticek said.
She said the group has been using monies from the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund to pay for homeowners’ flood claims to be reviewed by an insurance expert. The expert’s opinion and notes are then forwarded along to FEMA, she said.
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Sandy victims may be leaving millions on the table
In March, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that 142,000 Sandy victims would get a second chance at making a flood insurance claim if they felt they had been cheated by their flood insurance provider. About 73,000 of those victims live in New Jersey.
But many homeowners have so far chosen not to seek a review. The deadline to apply for a review is Sept. 15. To reopen a claim, call 1-866-337-4262 or go to www.fema.gov/hurricane-sandy-nfip-claims.
FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said that so far, 17,642 people have contacted FEMA’s call center or downloaded an online application to request a review. Of that number, 12,340 have been deemed eligible for further review, and 11,476 claims have had their eligibility confirmed and have entered the review process.
ASBURY PARK PRESS
NJ delegation to HUD: Don’t pursue Sandy victims’ money
Activists have expressed concern that many Sandy victims who could be eligible for additional payments if they reopened their claims have so far been unwilling to do so.
Some homeowners have expressed concern that any additional proceeds they might receive would be clawed back by the state or the federal government and could potentially cut their awards under the state’s Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) program, the largest rebuilding program for homeowners. New Jersey has indicated it will not pursue any new insurance money that overlaps with a RREM grant.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has not given a definitive answer about whether it will attempt to claw back any duplicate funds.
The RREM program is funded through federal Community Development Block Grant monies allocated by HUD. The state’s Congressional delegation is hoping that HUD won’t seek reimbursement from homeowners who receive additional insurance proceeds.
Other homeowners fear that accepting more insurance money could push their home into the “substantially damaged” category, forcing them to elevate the structure.
FEMA considers a home substantially damaged if the total cost of repairs exceeds 50 percent of the house’s pre-Sandy market value.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has said that FEMA officials have assured him that properties will not be moved into the substantially damaged category if homeowners receive more flood insurance proceeds. But many remain skeptical.
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Up in the air: 1,000 days after Sandy
Almost all of the state’s Congressional delegation, along with the long-term recovery group and other Sandy advocates, have asked for FEMA to extend the deadline for reopening a flood claim by two months, to Dec. 15.
“I think there is the opportunity for us to bring in extra tens of millions of dollars into this recovery if we can get this extension,” Marticek said.
Rescue workers using a boat to evacuate residents on Eckel Road in Little Ferry on Oct. 30, 2012, after Superstorm Sandy caused flooding.
BY KIM LUEDDEKE
STAFF WRITER |
With a mid-September deadline fast approaching, victims of Superstorm Sandy who believe they were underpaid by their flood insurance companies are running out of time to reopen their claims.
After allegations surfaced that engineering reports had been doctored to minimize insurance payouts to Sandy victims, the Federal Emergency Management Agency took the unprecedented step of allowing policyholders to request another review of their claims.
RECORD FILE PHOTO
Storm damage on Oct. 31, 2012, in Seaside Heights.
FEMA started sending out letters to about 142,000 policyholders in May. As of Friday, 19,892 had either contacted the Sandy review call center or downloaded an application. Nearly 13,000 had been approved for review, according to FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre. The deadline is next Tuesday.
TOMS RIVER — Ninety percent of the superstorm Sandy victims who have sought assistance with reopening their flood insurance claims seem to be owed some money, the head of Ocean County’s Long-Term Recovery Group said Thursday.
“Many are owed substantial amounts of money,” the group’s Executive Director, Sue Marticek, said at the monthly meeting of the long-term recovery group. “It could be that game-changer that determines whether people get home or not.”
Marticek’s group has been holding clinics throughout the state aimed at helping residents decide whether to reopen their flood insurance claim through FEMA. The long-term recovery group has so far reviewed 150 cases, and 90 percent of them appear to be owed money, Marticek said.
She said the group has been using monies from the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund to pay for homeowners’ flood claims to be reviewed by an insurance expert. The expert’s opinion and notes are then forwarded along to FEMA, she said.
ASBURY PARK PRESS
Sandy victims may be leaving millions on the table
In March, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that 142,000 Sandy victims would get a second chance at making a flood insurance claim if they felt they had been cheated by their flood insurance provider. About 73,000 of those victims live in New Jersey.
BALDWIN, N.Y. — The recent letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency about his flood insurance claim should have come as good news to William T. Lynch, who is now on his third apartment rental since his 1920s cottage here was gutted by Hurricane Sandynearly three years ago.
“If you believe we underpaid your claim,” it read, “you may be eligible for an additional payment.”
To FEMA, the message amounted to a rare acknowledgment to some 142,000 homeowners who filed claims with the agency after the storm that its procedures, which have been plagued by allegations of improprieties relating to engineering reports insurance companies relied upon, may have been seriously flawed. But to Mr. Lynch, who has been driven to the point of desperation by his dealings with one government entity after another, the message seemed like another mirage in his so-far futile quest to rebuild his home in Nassau County.
“This is the most painful thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Mr. Lynch, a 52-year-old Iraq war veteran, said. “I’d rather go back to Falluja.”
Mr. Lynch remains uncertain about whether he should reopen his claim, and he is hardly alone. With a Sept. 15 deadline less than a month away, only about 11,000 eligible homeowners have asked FEMA to look again at their cases, a number that one advocate described as “scary low.”
The anemic numbers are the latest testament to the bureaucratic morass that has gripped so many of Hurricane Sandy’s victims. Some have been suspicious of FEMA’s letter, which seemed to suggest that a new review of their claims could function like an audit, and potentially force them to repay the government. But most say, with an air of resignation and frustration, that they no longer have the energy to fill out more papers and to deal with more layers of officialdom, even though they could be forsaking tens of thousands of dollars. They are simply spent.
Photo
Mr. Lynch’s mailbox sits in a shrub near his home, where it was deposited by Hurricane Sandy almost three years ago.CreditKevin Hagen for The New York Times
All over the region, homeowners, their advocates and elected officials have bitterly complained about the government programs meant to help people rebuild their homes and bolster them financially, declaring that the programs instead have been characterized by inexplicable delays and confusing directives. Even now, only a small fraction of homes destroyed by the 2012 hurricane have been rebuilt, and thousands of homeowners are occupying only partly rebuilt homes.
The review of flood insurance claims from superstorm Sandy has been bogged down in confusion and hesitation, according to a letter to FEMA from U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s office.
Menendez, and perhaps eventually the entire New Jersey Congressional delegation, is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to push the deadline on the Sandy claims review process back three months to December 15.
“Thousands of homeowners still have countless questions about what information they need to provide and how they need to proceed in order to get every penny they’re entitled to,” reads the Democrat’s letter.
Under the newly designed process, policyholders had to request a review, but many people are weary about interacting with FEMA again.
ASBURY PARK PRESS
5 ways new Sandy transparency law changed
By 5 p.m. Wednesday, a couple dozen homeowners had filtered through the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group’s hands-on claims review workshop in Middletown. Several expressed reticence about dusting off all their old Sandy claims paperwork.
“It’s like they (FEMA) are making it up as they go along,” said Brian Tober, of Monmouth Beach, who has reapplied but wanted some advice. “But they’ve been through this with us once already. This should be easy.”
Only about 10,000 Sandy claims — for the whole region — will be reviewed or have already been, according to figures from FEMA through the end of July. FEMA set a deadline of September 15 for policyholders to challenge any Sandy flood claim.
Menendez attributes much of the uncertainty to two questions:
But the Menendez letter says that “hundreds of homeowners have now waited over 110 days and still do not have their results, let alone a check in hand.” FEMA had pledged that the process would take a maximum of 90 days from start to finish.
More than a 1,000 sued their insurers, but many more tried to rebuild with a combination of the insurance money and government grants. For many, they were never able to make up the insurance shortfall.
“We know firsthand that people are short funding for their (reconstruction) projects and this may be the last, best opportunity for them to get funding,” said Sue Marticek, executive director of the recovery group.
RECORD FILE PHOTO
