Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer-Amato (D-23rd AD) held a press conference at the bay end of West 12th Road in Broad Channel on Sunday, October 29th, 2017 on the 5th Anniversary of Super Storm Sandy.
The Assemblywoman and a working group she convened, including local, state and Federal leaders, marked the five-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, with a list of legislative recommendations for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP is slated to be reauthorized by Congress in late November or early December (and would otherwise expire on December 8th). NFIP re- authorization was already slated to be one of three major legislative items of the current session of Congress before Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria made international news and threw the urgency of securing America’s floodplain into stark relief. Over half of all Americans live in a county adjacent to coastline, and climate scientists expect flooding issues to worsen worldwide over the next several decades, making legislative steps taken in the near future potentially decisive to the success or failure of securing the floodplain.
Although Flood Insurance is a hot button issue, attendance at the event was hampered by the fact that just as the presser commenced a powerful storm being fed in part by moisture and energy from Tropical Storm Philippe was starting to move into our area which is expected to bring heavy rain, locally damaging winds and significant travel disruptions into Monday. Nevertheless, many thanks to the Assemblywoman for utilizing Broad Channel as the platform for her press conference, a community where many of us are still struggling with the aftermath of Sandy including the important issue of NFIP insurance rates.
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