Critics call for wide-ranging, structural reforms to ensure problems encountered after Sandy don’t happen again

While that figure represents a marked uptick in progress since the end of last year, when just 330 had completed reconstruction, it amounts to just a fraction of the approximately 8,300 homeowners enrolled in the state’s Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation Program, or RREM.

“It is welcomed that the number has gone up so much in the first quarter of the year,” said Susan Marticek, executive director of the Ocean County Long-Term Recovery Group, one of several such groups formed after Sandy to help storm victims. “But the reality is, we’re coming up on two years of the program and we still have a long way to go.”

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says he wants to fix what went wrong with the process of paying flood insurance claims following Superstorm Sandy.

Craig Fugate told the first meeting of a congressional task force in Washington on April 28 that the flood program has to be revamped so equal importance is given to paying the full amount of legitimate claims.

“We want to fix this,” Fugate said. “If we owe money, we pay. Too often in government we are focused on not making an overpayment, putting more emphasis on not overpaying a claim. I gotta get it right. How do we get to something that’s more successful and works better the first time?”

New Jersey’s U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said the task force will focus on FEMA’s agreement to reopen all underpaid flood insurance claims for Superstorm Sandy victims. He said some of the underpayments were caused by “lowballing and manipulation of engineering and adjustment reports.”

“Getting it right means no overpayments, but it also means no underpayments,” Menendez said. “We have to get it right.”

The task force consists of the four senators from New Jersey and New York, Fugate, Sandy victims and their advocates in both states. It will recommend ways to improve the performance of the flood insurance program.

One of the members is George Kasimos, of Toms River, New Jersey, who formed the grass roots group Stop FEMA Now when FEMA announced that flood insurance rates would soar based on new flood maps it issued two months after the October 2012 storm.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says he wants to fix what went wrong with the process of paying flood insurance claims following Superstorm Sandy.

Craig Fugate told the first meeting of a congressional task force in Washington on Tuesday that the flood program has to be revamped so equal importance is given to paying the full amount of legitimate claims.

“We want to fix this,” Fugate said. “If we owe money, we pay. Too often in government we are focused on not making an overpayment, putting more emphasis on not overpaying a claim. I gotta get it right. How do we get to something that’s more successful and works better the first time?”

New Jersey’s U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said the task force will focus on FEMA’s agreement to reopen all underpaid flood insurance claims for Superstorm Sandy victims. He said some of the underpayments were caused by “lowballing and manipulation of engineering and adjustment reports.”

“Getting it right means no overpayments, but it also means no underpayments,” Menendez said. “We have to get it right.”

The task force consists of the four senators from New Jersey and New York, Fugate, Sandy victims and their advocates in both states. It will recommend ways to improve the performance of the flood insurance program

Tuesday, April 28, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.), and Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (both D-N.Y.) today convened the first meeting of the Sandy Task Force to examine problems within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) arising in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and develop recommendations for short- and long-term fixes.

The Sandy Task Force will focus on a range of relevant issues, including FEMA’s commitment to reopen all underpaid flood insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy victims caused by widespread lowballing and manipulation of engineering and adjustment reports. It will also explore the viability of a complete overhaul of the NFIP, including whether the current model of relying on third-party, private, Write-Your-Own (WYO) insurance companies to process claims, is the best way to serve policyholders.

“Your government failed you, plain and simple, and you deserve much, much better,” said Sen. Menendez. “The purpose of this Task Force is very simple: 1) to bring justice to the Sandy survivors who were lowballed; and 2) to fix the claims process so this injustice never happens again. The Task Force’s goal is to make the flood insurance program more efficient and more responsive for the next storm victims, while restoring fairness and ending the nightmare for current storm victims.”