Union Beach couple gets $33K flood insurance bill after raising home above new federal standards

By Erin O'Neill | The Star-Ledger on July 27, 2014 at 7:15 AM, updated July 29, 2014 at 5:22 PM

UNION BEACH — When Richard Drake, 54, first got the bill in April from Wright National Flood Insurance, he called up and said: "You made a mistake."

And they told him, "We didn’t make a mistake. You made a mistake."

Four months later, the Drakes are caught in a complicated battle over federal flood maps and flood zones that has left them frustrated and drained just after they thought they had put their lives back together.

Flood insurance coverage on their Union Beach home once cost Richard and Sandra Drake $598. This year they have to pay more than $32,000 on top of that — despite the fact the couple raised their home 3 feet above the minimum federal requirements outlined in new flood maps released after Hurricane Sandy.

And though the couple’s situation is unusual, officials say they expect more people may be affected as a result of conflicting lines in the sand designating areas along the Jersey Shore most susceptible to storm flooding.

The ground beneath the Drakes’ home has been shifting on flood maps since they purchased it. When the house was built in 1993, the property was located in a less restrictive flood zone, known as the "A" zone, according to an elevation certificate issued at the time.

More than 15 years later, the property was drawn into a more critical zone susceptible to storm-driven waves, known as the "V" — or velocity — zone. However, they weren’t notified of the change at the time and continued to pay the same premiums. Then Sandy hit, substantially damaging the Drakes’ home and requiring them to adhere to new federal flood requirements when they rebuilt.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency released advisory flood maps in December 2012, sparking angry protests from residents and local officials who decried the expansion of the "V" zone where homeowners must build on pilings, among other stringent requirements. The state, however, subsequently adopted those maps as the standard for rebuilding.

The Drakes’ home remained in the "V" zone on those advisory maps. At that point, they said they considered walking away because they couldn’t afford the increased costs associated with elevating their home in that zone. But the couple said they were told to wait to rebuild until FEMA, which oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, released updated maps that officials expected to scale back the most at-risk flood zone.

When that happened the following June, the "V" zones in Monmouth County decreased by 46 percent. Among those who were returned to the "A" zone were the Drakes.

Drake said he went to Bob Burlew, the construction official and flood plain manager for Union Beach, and asked him what he had to do. He said Burlew told him to elevate the home at least 2 feet higher than the minimum standard outlined in the new map. The Drakes went even further, going another foot beyond that.

"I did exactly what I was told," he said. "This is what we get: a $33,000 bill."

The problem for the Drakes is that the new maps released last June aren’t yet adopted and according to FEMA officials, they may not become effective until the end of 2015. And since only effective maps are used to determine flood insurance rates, the Drakes are still being held to the more restrictive "V" zone standard.

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the state "sets forth certain construction standards in flood prone areas, but that homeowners should consult their local building code official and their flood insurance provider to understand all the restrictions and implications of construction."

A spokesperson for Wright Flood, the Drakes’ insurance provider, said the matter has been sent to FEMA and that the company "must abide by the underwriting rules established by the NFIP and FEMA and we await their direction on this issue."

FEMA spokesman Dan Watson said he couldn’t comment on an individual case but that homeowners participating in the flood insurance program should build to the more stringent standard.

According to Burlew, the Drakes’ house was never in the "V" zone. "I think it’s just one big mistake," he said. The Union Beach official has been in contact with the state to make a determination that the house has always been in the less restrictive zone.

Still, the Drakes aren’t the only who have faced this issue.

Claudette D’Arrigo, a 61-year-old Highlands resident, said her insurance premium jumped from $2,700 to $34,000 for similar reasons.

D’Arrigo, who has been working with office of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), secured a waiver that dropped her premium to roughly $7,800 but said that still isn’t good enough. She said her home is raised to well above the federal requirements outlined in the new maps.

"If I get water and I’m 16 feet in the air, you got a much bigger problem than my house," she suggested.

Menendez, who introduced a bill signed into law earlier this year that aimed to stave off dramatic increases in flood insurance premiums, spoke about the Drakes and D’Arrigo during testimony at a Senate subcommittee hearing last week.

"What I find puzzling after working so hard with so many of you to pass a law that specifically caps rate increases and encourages FEMA to strive to keep flood insurance affordable, we are still hearing about outrageous increases that threaten to do more economic damage to families than the storm itself," he said.

John Miller, legislative committee chair for the New Jersey Association of Floodplain Management, said these cases raise concerns about inconsistent state and federal standards, which are left to flood plain managers to sort through and enforce.

The state adopted rules after Sandy instructing communities to rebuild with the best available data.

The state has advised that in the "rare circumstances" in which the flood elevation on an effective map is higher than the elevation on a newer map, the effective map should govern rebuilding. But, Miller notes, the state is silent on construction in "V" zones.

Miller pointed to further inconsistencies between state rebuilding rules and federal standards, which were raised by FEMA officials in a letter to the state last year.

"This confusion needs to be resolved. Every instance is going to be a little different, but we need to get people at the same table and work out these possibilities and how they are going to be dealt with," said Miller. "I believe that we will see other cases of noncompliance. The worst time to find out that is when you get that elevation certificate and you get that quote from the write-your-own insurance. It’s 11:59 on the clock. It’s completely the wrong time to know that because there’s not much you can do."

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