Superstorm Sandy

proud February 16, 2013 at 06:37 pm

@Karen M., if you have not seen the APP today, there is an article on the first page of the county section addressing just this issue. Stafford is going to adopt the ABFE's and fight the zone changes. On the front page of the main section are all Sandy related. There is an article about a video from a Faith Liquopri and letter she wrote that inspired a video posted on you tube called "Homeless in Seaside Park". It is an excellent portrayal of FEMA induced atrocities. I would recommend EVERYBODY watch this video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbF8q19wodE as we are all in this together.
www.Facebook/StopFemaNow

Spooner February 16, 2013 at 07:27 pm

Karen M- you might be interested in reading the National Hurricane Center report on Sandy, especially their published flood figures for various municipalities. Then contrast those figures against FEMA's new ABFE maps...
http://pointpleasant.patch.com/articles/report-sandy-second-costliest-storm-in-u-s-history#pdf-13350965

Karen M February 17, 2013 at 09:29 pm

@proud, I actually read her letter several weeks ago and I have seen the video. thanks for the info anyways. This was an interesting weekend at the shore I spoke with a house raising company who gave me an estimate and he said that there are grants that will be available to everyone who wants to raise their home. He was talking about the hazard mitigation grant. I was told by some other people that these are impossible to get, but he advised me otherwise. He stated that they will be made available to cover the cost of raising your home so you don't incur any out of pocket expense. And this company will do the grant application for you. I am going to do a bit more research and then I will post what I find out. Because, I told him that I was told that I would have to come up with the additional cost and he said no. He said that the grant will be availble for everyone. Seeing is believing and I am going to look in to it.

proud February 17, 2013 at 10:40 pm

Karen M re:4:29 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Wouldn't that be wonderful. Have to keep believing that some sensible solutions will evolve or you'll go nuts. www.stopfemanow.com

Cherry Quay resident February 18, 2013 at 03:22 pm

Everyone must STOP FEMA NOW!!!
go to www.stopfemanow.com sign this petition today! we can't afford to allow the government (FEMA) screw our lives http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpetitions.whitehouse.gov%2Fpetition%2Freevaluate-new-fema-advisory-base-flood-elevation-maps-help-us-rebuild-not-shore-not-push-us-out%2FtZYxj3V5&h=gAQE4INkv

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 04:44 am

That, Mr. Henry, is just too on the money for these guys. The mere thought of eliminating even one civil service job somehow just never makes it to their to do list in part because those involved are their friends and relatives. They will only understand it when we who pay very high taxes are forced out and will move past NJ's borders.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 04:46 am

It would go a whole lot faster and much more efficiently if FEMA just went home and took their out of date and out of touch plans with them.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 04:47 am

Bingo!

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 04:50 am

Science the lady is asking for. Madam, it is out of the realm of possibility for science to even enter this situation. It's politics as usual in NJ and Fema is as inept as our State wide adminstration. Of course we do things with flare that looks an awful lot like corruption so we are special. But scientific we are not.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 04:58 am

With his speed reading, the Governor has a knack of missing the meat of any issue. I sincerely doubt if he spent one minute on looking at any map of any place that he knew and understood with the exception maybe of Lucky Leo's.
My neighborhood has half the houses on a Lake and the other half on 3' of the Bay and yet we are in that dreaded, killer zone V. If you look at what you have to go through to get those maps revised, you will throw in the towel. A Fema hotshot says that those quickly tossed together maps are "conservative" meaning that if you challenge them if they had a classification worse than V, that's where we would all end up. The Governor screwed up big time and now that the periods of denial and shock have passed, he will face anger that he never dreamed of. He needs to apologize for his mistakes and then rescind the power he granted to the ultra inept from Fema. This is our State, not Fema's.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:04 am

The reason that won't work is that much of the western side of Barnegat Bay was actually hit by Ocean water that came over and through the barrier islands. The building standards over there have been shaped by builders and developers and it shows. And the towns don't know what serious berms mean because in order to build up dunes, the businesses over there would have to forsake their views of the water which are what attract tourists. The western side of the Bay is hardly viewed as anything those on high care about so we catch their trash all of the time.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:11 am

Honestly, it's the Governor's call. He could fess up to his bad decision making and undo the dumb things he signed us up for and return the decison making to people who actually live in the affected areas. He started out with that notion but swiftly changed course and unless he turns around quickly dark isn't the word for this area's future.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:15 am

Our Mayor mentioned increased taxes to come during one of his first interviews and to say that it hurt people very badly is to be nice about it. And he's a triple dipper to boot who obviously hasn't got a clue as to what you are talking about. That is a chronic problem in NJ and it's part of what making it hard to stay here is all about. The only route is to vote all incumbents out until politicians get the message that they are their to work FOR us and that we are not their personal ATM machines.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:21 am

The answer may be to run a slate of Independents when those Freeholder seats come up again. I have attended just one meeting and it was enough to turn me off forever. They sit up on high and are rude and abusive to people who dare to ask questions or point to some bit of mismanagement. And the speakers are given at best three minutes and rudely told to sit down. Arrogant isn't the word for their behavior and actions and maybe a not politically associated bunch could get in there and they sure couldn't do those jobs in a lesser way than they are being done today.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:26 am

That "area" approach is unfair. Houses on pilings tended to make it through while older homes built right on the shore line were frequently demolished. Each house has to be evaluated and not by some contractor Fema hired who in our case spent three minutes here and filled out their form with actual lies. He didn't ask the questions on the form and when we got to see it two months later, it just did not reflect the truth about this house.
Developments may be able to take that "area" approach but the worst hit places contained mixed housing and one size does not fit all. But so far Fema has just done shoddy if not dishonest work so their end products can't be trusted.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:31 am

Go to Zazzle and type in: llewellynh and you will find your shirts. And every single penny of the $1.40 I make will go directly into the palms of people who are in truly desperate need as a result of Sandy and the lack of care they have received.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:37 am

Well we on the western side of Barnegat Bay who often used to visit the barrier islands will not likely be there this summer. We don't have the money to waste on $5 hamburgers and $5 ice cream cones because we are having serious trouble getting by never mind planning for any sort of future.
The boardwalk is all private business and I hope not a single dime of outside money has gone into the Governor's summer wonderland because if it has, it is money that should have been spent on those who are close to destitute. People were displaced and still are but have to keep paying their existing mortgages and slightly reduced property taxes while also having to set up temporary homes elsewhere. Try having a job but having to buy a second hand wardrobe because your own clothes got wet. Ditto your shoes and so many other basics.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:41 am

I finally have a copy of the contracted fema inspector's report of this house and he who asked no questions and didn't set foot in the house proper just made up all kinds of stuff to fill in the blanks. My favorite was his saying we have average carpeting when in fact we don't have any at all. But for that caliber of work, that man was paid with our taxpayer dollars, $500 a day.
I will unload it when I find the highest possible venue to show folks just what has been going on.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:51 am

I spent a year and a half studying hurricane prevention building and some houses can be lifted but there is always a risk of destroying the structural integrity of the building. The absolute best time to do it is up front but architects and engineers have been working on this for several decades and have made things better. One of the problems NJ faces is that because our building codes were so sloppy for years and years, that very few builders around here understand this to them anyway newer way of building. They should be required to attend hands on classes and then be tested because it takes greater skill to insert pilings after the fact than it does in the beginning. There is a learning curve here and I wouldn't want to be one of anyone's first ten or fifteen customers.
I've been watching roofs getting repaired to the way out of whack building codes in place and do think our towns could at least upgrade the codes when it comes to roofing. The new method requires more nails and in very strict environments it has to be done by hand nailing and not with guns. And roofing is now a common repair but to just put it up the same old way does a disservice to all of us.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 05:54 am

And unfortunately there is a great deal of price gouging going on and it's reflected in that quote you received. If you wait the fellows will know how to do things much better than they do at the moment and somehow I suspect the prices will go back down to where they were pre-Sandy.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:04 am

Chief, it's not fear of them but the processes put in place by the multiple layers of government and slack off insurance companies have been set up to drive the sanest among us nuts. Fema hadn't done it's job for 30 THIRTY years and the governor foolishly didn't investigate their previous performances around the nation so with those two things going on, it becomes a full time job to get even a single reliable straight answer.
And to just ignore them means insurance premiums (the scam of all times) will squash you along with the bank that holds your mortgage and which from now on will demand to see the paid up premium paperwork every year. Christie didn't need another expensive commission. He did need top flight business systems folks to put in a streamlined but accurate system that would have as rapidly as possible helped people in many ways. Right now for him to say go ahead and build shows how little he understands his own government. It's fine to say we are free but somehow way too many of us have ended up in foreclosure and the western side of the Bay is headed for much more of that than the damage caused by Sandy deserves. Reasonable new standards and codes combined with a ton of common sense is just too easy but always put on the back burner.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:11 am

But the National Association of Realtors endorsed what they should have known wasn't going to be good for them. The AARP did the same damn thing with endorsing the new medicare which is very close to No Care.
Real estate was tanking in this area way before Sandy and this is the icing on the cake. The question is who is going to replace us. Builders of McMansions or birds most of us love dearly and are advocates for. I just get the feeling that some folks think by removing us they will attract the rich and famous who will pay much higher taxes. It's a fantasy that only politicians would dream of but it's a real possibility because it's tough to believe that with the huge number of civil "servants" involved that no one saw the disaster that they themselves were creating and raised his or her voice loudly.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:21 am

Is that a fact or a pipe dream? I realize we do qualify now for that situation but I sure don't see how this bankrupt State can cope with that loss of revenue given their huge pensions and double dipping lifestyles that the Governor has yet to thin out. He balances budgets by not paying into those way too high Pension Plans and thinks that people don't realize that down the road those who still live here will really be paying taxes - or moving out swiftly. And I like him and voted for him but when his eyes moved toward the White House, the number of short cuts grew in leaps and bounds and how he can balance the budget with a close to half state 3.5% sales tax is beyond me. And to that big hole he will see that sales tax revenue in general is going to tank because people have less and less money to spend.
But maybe he thinks Atlantic City will turn around. Only a politician could fall for that one. We are in serious financial trouble as a nation and as a State and at some point those guys are going to have to readjust some of their great plans such as raising Bayside houses 14' in the air because one of the most inept federal agencies guesses that's the thing to do.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:25 am

I've heard that rumor several times but until someone shows me that in signed and sealed writing, I don't buy it. If they were going to back down - and they should - why not do it now? What is the purpose of putting so many human beings through month after month of endless stress. By August or September how many people will have had heart attacks or even done themselves in because of the unending torment that they are being told to be patient about.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:29 am

Dear Karen M, there is no Easter Bunny. There is a dollar limit on those grants and so "everyone" who wants to raise their house will not be able to do via that route. There are other strings attached and I strongly suggest that you take his offer to a lawyer or even a fema office because you are not being told the truth.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:32 am

Keep in mind that Fema is the agency that ordered 20,000 trailer homes for folks in New Orleans but never got around to delivering them to the people who needed them. Instead they still sit I believe all bunched up and rotting together.
No one in their right mind would ever let those folks dispense funds for any purpose under the sun. Accounting is a word not spoken there.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:35 am

A whole bunch of those Fema "employees" are actually contractors who were quickly hired but not to toss taxpayer money away. The sad part of this is that so many people still are in serious need of financial help and the little money that has gone out way too often went to people who in effect stole from their neighbors. Remember them when they come back.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:39 am

And I made some up for the group but put them on Zazzle so people could buy things in colors and styles that I couldn't afford to stock. Go to llewellynh at their site. My best one starts of with: FEMA is a four letter word.

foggyworld February 22, 2013 at 06:43 am

I don't dare look because I asked early on if we in the neighborhoods that the money was being spent on could at least initial some forms stating that yes, that work was done in our area on that date and by X number of people who spent X number of hours doing said work. They used equipment that I would identify as _____________.
Now you know this didn't happen and yet I kept reading about the tons of money being spent in our war zone neighborhood and knew it wasn't true. Next to nothing was spent here and it still shows.

Karen M February 22, 2013 at 03:23 pm

@foggyworld, I didn't say I believed what he was selling. I research everything before I take anyone at their word. So far, like so many others, I've been told what they think people want to hear. I for one, don't think that I will be entitled to a dime because my home is a second home. Quite frankly, my husband and I are tired of the BS. I had a Fema rep call me last week and he told me that I should play the lottery; I would probably have better odds of obtaining some money than trying to secure grant money. So that tells you where thats going.