Huge Turnout for Stop FEMA Now Rally in Broad Channel is only the Beginning!

Numbers don't lie!

1,100 attend Stop FEMA Now Rally in Broad Channel...

"The message was sent very loud and very clear! Congress needs to fix their mistake!"

 Approximately 700 people, along with a wide range of various media organizations (both mainstream and local, print and radio) packed the American Legion Hall at 209 Cross Bay Boulevard at noon to listen to various speakers demand or show their support to delay and amend certain provisions of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 to make flood insurance affordable for those who need it.

In addition to those assembled inside the hall, an overflow crowd of some
400 additional individuals

stood in the parking lot adjacent to the American Legion listening to loudspeakers.

One neighbor from Breezy Point remarked - "We don't care about the messenger...we care about the message and as I look around at all these people it is evident that the message is being sent very loud and very clear - we are in danger of losing our homes and our communities.  Our elected leaders must step up to the plate and fix this mess."

The rally was attended by residents of Ozone Park, Howard Beach (both new and old), Hamilton Beach, Broad Channel, and the entire breadth of the Rockaway Peninsula.  Several individuals I spoke with have been displaced from their homes since the storm and traveled from upstate N.Y., Connecticut and as far away as Pennsylvania to make their presence known at this rally.

The rally was a huge success and all of you who participated should feel good about yourselves for attending.  As Kevin Boyle (Editor at the WAVE) would say, "you did your civic duty!"

That being said, the death knell of this movement would be to have us attend a successful rally and then go home thinking our job was done. 

If that happens then right after the rally, those in power will simply smother the flame of protest and nothing will be accomplished. 

We all need go home and continue to express our dissatisfaction with Biggert-Waters, FEMA and the NFIP. 

We all need to make it very clear that we will not allow our communities to become an enclave of foreclosed houses!  

We have to continually make it explicitly clear to our elected representatives that change is not only required, but demanded.

Attend every community meeting you can, community board, civic association, etc.,  and make it a point to raise this issue with those officials hosting the meeting.

Call, email and write (snail mail) each and everyone of our elected representatives from local party district leaders through city councilmen, Mayor, state representatives and senators and member of the United States Congress.

Write and email the major media dailies and each of our local newspapers asking them to maintain coverage of this issue with each of their publications.

This is only the beginning of this struggle but we now have momentum on our side.  Let's take advantage of it and press the fight.