Jersey Shore Mayor Says "There is hope for V Zone" Homes

Jersey Shore mayor: 'There is hope' for homeowners in 'V' zones on advisory flood maps

By Erin O'Neill/The Star-Ledger 

A Jersey Shore mayor has this message for homeowners who now fall into the most vulnerable zone on advisory federal flood elevation maps: “there is hope.”

Brick Mayor Stephen Acropolis told a crowd of roughly 180 people gathered for a meeting of the protest group Stop FEMA Now today that the severity of the maps -- released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in December -- will likely diminish.

“There is a chance that all of these things that we are so worried about and that we put our head in our pillows at night and worry about, those things I believe are going to change,” he said.

New Jersey adopted the maps earlier this year as the standard for rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy. But many victims of the storm on the mainland have said the maps unnecessarily place them in a “V” zone, which the federal agency deems susceptible to high-velocity waves as well as flooding. Homes in an “A” zone are only subject to flooding.

But later this year new maps will be released that officials say will have scaled back guidelines.

Gov. Chris Christie told a town hall meeting in Manasquan last week that the new set of maps will be less "aggressive" in placing homes in flood zones.

Acropolis said today that 4,000 homes in Brick fall into a “V” zone in the advisory maps, up from 400. But those advisory maps don’t take into consideration obstructions, like bulkheads, trees or homes, that may block a wave from hitting a home on a lagoon far inland, Acropolis said, but the new maps will.

He said he’d be “very, very surprised” if up to 75 percent of the people who have been drawn into the "V" zone are not transferred out when the new maps are released.

For that reason, the mayor advised homeowners who sit in what he called the “marginal ‘V’ zone” to not do any major work yet.

“You have to make sure that when we rebuild, we rebuild correctly,” he said. “Because you only get one chance at this.”

George Kasimos, who started Stop FEMA Now after he found his Toms River home was drawn into the “V” zone, said why spend the extra money to “raise your home to a ‘V’ standard when the word from all our politicians are that they are going to get lowered to an ‘A’ standard?“

“I would hold off until we get some answers,” he said.

That’s what Robert and Kathleen Collis – whose home also now falls into a “V” zone in the advisory maps -- are doing.

The husband and wife have lived on a lagoon in the Snug Harbor section of Toms River for 40 years and said though they’ve had flooding in the garage before they never had water in the house.

But Sandy pushed two feet of water into their ranch-style home. Now, they’re renting in Bayville.

Robert Collis said they will continue to rent until they know exactly what they are facing in order to rebuild their home, which was significantly damaged.

“I’m not going to spend any money on [the home],” he said. “You have to know what the elevation is going to be.”