Reply With QuoteContact the Floodplain coordinator in city hall @ 827-6426. I know FEMA has been working on new maps for our area. Hope they help you!
Any news on the Flood insurance issue in the 2nd ward? I just got some very disturbing news. I own a home in the 2nd ward between Warsaw and Electric. I've always been required to carry the Flood Insurance due to my mortgage. In 2006 I got a home equity loan. This past fall my equity loan was purchased by another mortgage lender. I received a letter two weeks ago stating that this new mortgage company requires that I increase my flood insurance to match my home owners policy. They claim they require full replacement coverage on Flood insurance. I am given 45 days to make the change or they will purchase for me and they literally told me it would cost me at least 3 times as much if they purchase it. I almost fell over when my insurance agent told me it will cost an additonal $545 a year and I need the cash upfront to get the increase in the policy started. This is a very upsetting situation. I like others in the area am of modest income. This little house of mine is going to cost me a total (includes home owners and flood) of over $1,500 in insurances alone. That coupled with the two mortgages is going to kill me financially. I can't refinance because although the home was appraised higher in 2006, now in 2010 the appraisal is not enough for me to be able to refinance. Nothing has changed with the home, the only change is in the mortgage companies and how they appraise. The home is unafforadable now. I can understand for the first time, how and why forclosures can occur.
I have done some research on the national flood insurance and the claim is that your local government gets a kick back for having the community participate. Thus the reason for the reluctance to remove the community from the program. Does anyone know if this is true.
I don't want to lose my home. Without help I am afraid that is what will happen. Any information at all Please?
Contact the Floodplain coordinator in city hall @ 827-6426. I know FEMA has been working on new maps for our area. Hope they help you!
Please see the attached
Thank youOriginally Posted by cath829
Burn it down.
Most of all I like bulldozers and dirt
I agree. Flood insurance in Lackawanna is a joke and a nightmare! When I purchased my home, I had to pay for flood insurance, of course. Two years ago, the bank informed me that I wasn't carrying enough insurance and happily purchased additional insurance for me and increased my monthly mortgage payment. Last year, another mortgage company bought out my loan and I got a letter that I had OVERPAID flood insurance by nearly $300. Instead of returning the overage to me, they tacked it onto my principle. After reading what happened to you, I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen this year!
Speakingup I gave you the number to the secretary in the engineering department. May I suggest you contact the Director of Development, Ralph Miranda at 827-6421 and let him direct you to the correct floodplain coordinator or you can pick his mind for the answers you are seeking seeing how he manages the office!!
Facts!
On March 15, 2010 Council meeting agenda:
Council Member Szymanski – requests Council approval of resolution asking our federal representatives to remove the unfair burden of having to pay flood insurance.
Thanks, ...
This sounds good.On March 15, 2010 Council meeting agenda:
Council Member Szymanski – requests Council approval of resolution asking our federal representatives to remove the unfair burden of having to pay flood insurance.
Thanks, ...
This sounds good and we've heard this statement from Kozub and many other respresentatives. Even Andrea had a public meeting with Kozub as a County distric representative in attendance.
Too much talk, too many meetings. Who's the decision maker (FEMA-everyone knows) to simply follow up on the case and its status. I hope it's not lost on somebody's desk.
People have a hard time to sell real estate that's located in flood zone. Who wants to buy when there's another choice with less money and headache?
What we need is a little less talk and a lot more action. The people in charge have been talking about this for years and nothing seems to take place. Hopefully with the new mapping thing we can get things done on this issue. My brother and friend had a hard time selling their houses because of this issue.
Are you sure that was the only issue as to selling their homes? I am sure when people inquire as to how Lackawanna is, that scares them away more than the flood insurance!!
Yes, you have a point. The flood insurance is bad enough, but what sane parent looks at the #96 ranking and says, "Whoopie! Let's enroll our kids into THAT school!!!!"
WHEATFIELD
FEMA reverses itself on flood plain map
By Thad Komorowski
NIAGARA CORRESPONDENT
Updated: March 23, 2010, 6:58 am / 2 comments
Published: March 23, 2010, 12:30 am
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WHEATFIELD — The Federal Emergency Management Agency apparently is rethinking its acceptance of the town’s flood plain map of the Bergholtz area.
Engineer Tim Walck of Wendel Duchscherer Architects & Engineers told the Town Board on Monday a FEMA representative has denied he accepted the map at a meeting earlier this month. The map, developed by Walck’s firm, removed a significant number of residential properties from flood hazard areas.
Walck said numerous town officials, as well as representatives from the offices of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., and Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, who attended the March 3 meeting, agreed that they heard Paul Weberg of FEMA say his agency would accept the flood elevation levels.
Walck reported that Weberg has since explained, “Well, we didn’t mean that.” He said FEMA’s latest position is to “work with the town’s model, not accept it as is.”
Acceptance of the map represented an important victory for the town in its appeal of FEMA’s proposed new maps. Last year, FEMA unveiled maps that put hundreds of homes in flood plain areas. Those homeowners would each have to buy extra flood insurance at about $1,000 every year as a result.
The town contended FEMA used flawed figures and enlisted the help of local federal representatives to fight the agency.
Walck said he was disappointed the win was “not a slam dunk,” as he originally reported, but he said he would continue to try to keep a good relationship with Weberg. However, he noted the town is looking at future legal recourse in case the changes involve more than some “small tweaks.”
He said the process should take about two months and the new maps would appear in September. He expects to set a meeting with residents in May.
In other action, the board agreed to join the effort to win a “Google Fibers for Communities” project that would bring a fiber-optic Internet system to the area. Councilman Larry Helwig, who heads Niagara County’s Data Processing Department, noted that the Internet system would be “100 times faster” than what computer users now use and would be competitively priced.
WHY NOT LACKAWANNA?
Flood map may include creek homes
By Janice L. Habuda
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: March 23, 2010, 6:58 am / 3 comments
Published: March 23, 2010, 12:30 am
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Up to 250 homes near Ellicott Creek may be included on an updated federal flood hazard map, requiring those Town of Tonawanda homeowners with mortgages to buy flood insurance.
Town officials announced Monday that several streets in the northeastern section of town could be included on new maps proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Preliminary information is available at www.ramppteam.com/ny.htm . “We don’t have the definite borders yet,” Councilman John A. Bargnesi Jr. said at the Town Board’s work session.
Building Inspector Carl Heimiller estimated that as many as 250 properties would be affected; letters will be sent to 1,100 property owners in the area about three public open houses — none in the town — to be held next week by FEMA and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The first will be from 4 to 8 p. m. next Tuesday in the gymnasium of the Old First Ward Community Center, 62 Republic St., Buffalo. The second is scheduled for the same time Wednesday in the Clarence Town Park clubhouse, 10405 Main St. The third will be held April 1 in East Aurora.
Property owners in flood plains usually are required to buy flood insurance from the federal government through an agent. Such coverage adds at least several hundred dollars annually to the price of a homeowner’s insurance.
Nationwide, FEMA’s flood hazard maps are being overhauled as part of a Flood Map Modernization Initiative, begun in 1997, with the goal of using new techniques to create more accurate maps.
Last year, three communities in Niagara County successfully challenged new flood zone maps and had several properties removed.
FEMA’s data was gathered by using a laser-guided instrument mounted in low-flying planes to measure elevations. The Town of Wheatfield and the City and Town of Lockport hired a local engineering firm to take measurements on the ground, which often showed that the land wasn’t as low-lying as FEMA indicated.
As a result of those local challenges and others across the country, the Government Accountability Office agreed last summer to investigate FEMA’s methods and policies. The status of that investigation couldn’t be learned Monday night.
jhabuda
Hmmmm.....
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