Quincy flood-map opponents accuse FEMA of abusing coastal residents
- quincymakingwaves
- May 27, 2014
- 2 min read
QUINCY – A group of Wollaston residents say the federal government is abusing coastal neighborhoods with its controversial new flood maps.
“Here I am at 60 years old looking towards creating debt that I will likely die with,” Carol Themmen of Dickens Street said. “The federal government now has my only true asset in their hands. In what I see as a mismanagement of power, I am left fearful and afraid of my future.”
Themmen was one of four residents from the Beechwood Knoll neighborhood, in the eastern section of Wollaston, who spoke out against the flood maps proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a public hearing Tuesday night. FEMA’s Norfolk County maps are scheduled to take effect June 9, and individual communities must adopt the changes before then or they will be ineligible to receive flood insurance.
FEMA’s new map for Quincy would add 1,400 Quincy properties to the flood plain, forcing their owners to buy flood insurance. It also would raise risk zones for about 2,700 city properties already in the plain.
The city’s planning board voted to the new map for Quincy after Tuesday’s public hearing, and the city council will vote next Monday. Joseph Shea, son of City Clerk Joseph Shea and senior vice president of Woodard & Curran, the engineering firm hired by the city to do a flood-map study, has recommended that officials adopt the map by June 9 to keep the city eligible for flood insurance and FEMA grants.
“There is a fairly strong downside to not adopting the maps,” Shea said.
He said the city is applying for map revisions through FEMA in an effort to bring relief to many of Quincy’s affected neighborhoods.
Beechwood Knoll residents protesting the new Quincy map have formed a group called Quincy Coalition Making Waves. Richard Joyce, a member from Havilend Street, said the new map will cost him at least $2,200 in flood-insurance costs per year and devalue his home.
John Risitano of Dickens Street blasted the federal government, saying FEMA is trying to replenish its depleted disaster-relief accounts on the backs of coastal residents whose properties have never become flooded.
“The cost of disaster assistance should be the entire country’s obligation, not just those living at or near the coast,” he said.
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