Stop FEMA Now Protest: One Community's Rally Cry

Janna Tierno, speaking with a reporter at Midland Beach,
Staten Island, N.Y., Stop FEMA Now rally Saturday.

By Mark E. Ruquet

At noon this past Saturday, residents around the country faced with the prospect of burdensome increases in flood insurance premium, gathered to raise attention to an issue that many fear will make coverage unaffordable—and worse. Protesters rallied in New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, anywhere that increases would essentially break the bank of many middle-class homeowners when they go into effect, to tell the Federal Emergency Management Agency (and by extension Congress) to stop the increases.

The word on the street is that some policyholders can expect increases thousands of times what they are currently paying, with no end in sight. If they want to keep rates down, raise the home above flood elevation--which is a lot easier said than done. The rate increases are to be phased in, says FEMA--but that phase in is coming like a freight truck with no brakes. 

Supporters of the law that increases rates, Biggert-Waters, say the premium hikes are necessary to make the Flood Insurance program viable in the future and dissuade development in flood-prone regions. The beneficiaries of the current Flood Insurance plan, they add, are primarily the wealthy. However, in many communities throughout the United States, the people being hardest hit are those that can least afford exorbitant increases and live in homes that existed long before adoption of the program.

Midland Beach, Staten Island, N.Y., suffered greatly in terms of flooding and lives lost. This is a taste of what residents here are feeling.Midland Beach, Staten Island, N.Y., suffered greatly in terms of flooding and lives lost. This is a taste of what residents here are feeling.

Joanna Tierno, spokesperson for Team Staten Island notes, “Our lawmakers talk about creating jobs and a business friendly environment, well there are 5.5 million policyholders in the United States and this is going to be devastating to jobs and the economy.”