The SBA loan is at 1.6% for people with poor credit . If you have good credit the rate is 3.75. So, essentially a second mortgage! Also, If you do not have 50% of the assessed value of your home damaged, you are not eligible for ICC. Are there any homeowners in the same situation? Perhaps we could seek answers as a group.

How long are certificates usually good for and where can I get mine??

House is only five years old.

Doug - Thanks for this excellent summary of requirements and other considerations. You mention the likelihood of some revisions to the flood maps before the final maps are adopted. Do you get a feel for the kinds of reductions to the V-Zone are likely. More specifically - does the bay-side seem to be a likely area where some V-zone reductions will be made. Dean talks about the current prelim maps being based primarily on elevation with little to no consideration to the factors effecting suseptability to wave action (3 foot waves at some duration and frequency). There is a huge difference in that suseptability between the ocean side and the bay side. So, was there any indication of the kinds of adjustments to the maps that are likely? Thanks, Sam.

Sam, I'm nervous about speaking with any degree of authority, but the considerations that Dean mentions have been repeated at City Council and other meetings: that the advisory maps are "conservative" and that they don't yet take into consideration dunes and bulkheads and buildings and other mitigating factors. The conventional wisdom is that V zones would get smaller in the final version of the map. And certainly city residents and officials are most befuddled by some of the bayside V Zones — even for houses several blocks off the bay, where a three-foot wave seems impossible to imagine unless the rest of the island is completely wiped out.

When looking at your elevation certificate, be very careful to check the datum being used. Surveyors in town are still using the NGVD29 datum, while the new maps reference NAVD88. If your certificate says NGVD, subtract 1.3 feet from the elevations shown to get a close approximation to compare with the new maps.

Generally speaking, if our ABFE is 11ft., and our house now is 2ft. above ground to the bottom of the joist, would our house need to be raised according to the new standards. We did get water damage to our first floor in up into our floors. I think our mean sea level is 10ft. I'm very confused. Does this mean we are only 1ft. above ABFE?

My home is over 70 years old, is there somewhere for me of get a copy of the certificate, or do I need to get a surveyor? Also, how do I determine the actual BFE for my home. Thanks!

Property owners do NOT necessarily have flood elevation certificates. Gary, try the construction office on Haven Ave. It is all very confusing.

Doug - Understood. Thanks
Nelson - Thanks for helpful link. I have to assume that the wave modelling is already integrated into the prelim maps. Hope I wrong. If I am wrong, then on the bayside, it appears that bayside buildings with wetlands interrupting wave formation will have the best chance for some accomodation in the requirements and rates, based on the info in the link.

My Elevation certificate says (base flood Elevation) is 10ft. When you search the adress it comes up On ABFE 11.ft My certificate shows if I am reading it right that my lowest part of my house (floor joist ) would be 9'2". What does this mean ? Can anyone help us with this question
Thanks ken

Ken, you need to know what zone you are in. If your zone on ABFE map is a V zone, the bottom of your joists have to be two feet above BFE if the joists run parallel to wave action, and 3 ft above if perpendicular to wave action, if you are rebuilding or substantially modifying. If not, to determine your possible flood insurance cost using the charts in the article, check first to see what datum was used on your certificate. In all likelihood it is NGVD29, in which case you need to subtract 1.3ft from the 9'2" to get your current elevation of 7'10". This is about 4 ft below the BFE so you would have a very high rate. If you are in the A zone on the ABFE map, the elevation that matters is that of your first finished floor. Use the same math process and compare to the A zone charts. Hope this helps.

@Gary, if you have a house you have owned for a long time, you need to have a surveyor provide an elevation certificate for your house. There would not be one available anywhere I can think of. Make sure that they measure to NAVD88.

Can i possibly be reading this correctly? My current insurance is $1900 a year, the new rates will be $12,000?? There has to be something wrong with this picture. How is the average person supposed to afford that?

Doug, you state that "According to Gov. Chris Christie's executive order on Thursday (Jan. 24), the advisory maps are adopted and nobody is "grandfathered" for the purposes of flood insurance or building codes." I think this statement is misleading concerning flood insurance in that Christie has no control over flood insurance and FEMA will continue to use the old maps until new Preliminary BFEs are released, commented on, adjusted, finalized and approved, which as I understand it could take more than two years. What Christie has done is put people in the position, if they are rebuilding, of having to comply with standards that may never apply to them. In Ocean City, the proposed V zone extends up to five blocks inland from the bay side, and does not include any beachfront properties. This is so at variance with the reality of Sandy that we know the maps will change. If people have to move on with rebuilding in the meantime, you have given them some common-sense tools to figure out what to do.

Great article Doug. Thank you for keeping your neighbors informed.

Our OCNJ elected officials need to categorize homeowners into effected groups in order to paint an overall "community picture" that'll demonstrate the devestating results of these measures.

Armed with such information, local authorities can take the message to Trenton and DC: surely our politicians won't watch the OCNJ community (and many more along the NJ coast) be destroyed.

@ Newell dont feel bad mine is coming in at $ 20,000 dollars a year. looking out the rear of our property to the front I can count 40-50- homes at the same this would be mayhem.I dont know where this going to go ,OC will be a prairie. Thank you to Joan and Jim for your information...even though it wasn't the news we were hoping to hear! Maybe as things get more definitive the outcome won't be quite as bad!! I can only say my prayers!!

Perhaps we have A plan here of island abandonment by economic pressure. Make it too expensive to live on the island, then turn it all into open space and give it back to the critters.......humans can only visit...

There is no doubt that all of this has significant potential impact. However my experience has been things never turn out as bad as initially expected. Everybody should just calm down a bit. Also please remember that people don't have to purchase flood insurance necessarily.

I suppose now that the subsidies are gone it means the end of the Community Rating System? Under the old system flood insurance premiums were related to the rating the community as a whole received.

This is little like loaning money from a bank. If you need it you'll never be able to qualify for it.

Not necessarily. The crs may still apply to certain areas.

If I am in the A zone and did not have significant damage to my home, ($21,000), but the NAVD 1988 now puts my house about 1'3" below BFE can I qualify for "Increased Cost of Compliance" (ICC) funding?

@DSA makes a good point...things are likely not to be as dire as they now look. From a logical standpoint, if you take the high water marks of Sandy, and the damage from the storm, and make an overlay on the ABFE map, it is clear that for properties not on the bay front but subject to rising bay waters, there is no risk of three foot waves, yet they are in the V zone on the ABFE map. Conversely, beachfront homes WERE hit with bigger waves than that and are in the A zone on the ABFE map. It is reasonable to assume that the classification of these properties are likely to be reversed, with many near-bay neighborhoods going back into the A zone and beachfronts moving back into the V zones as they are on the current maps. Many have suggested that if you have some damage but can make your house livable for now, you may be better off applying for funding to raise it but waiting to take any action until at least the preliminary maps are produced. As far as projected insurance costs, also try to think logically. If you have a bungalow where the structure is worth, say, $90,000 and your flood insurance cost is "projected" to be $30,000 per year, you would be paying for a new house every three years. In that case, you would be better off trying to get away from flood insurance as it is a poor investment.

Logically you cannot "get away" from flood insurance if you have a mortgage!! I was told by FEMA that the increase in flood insurance has nothing to do with Sandy. It has been in the works for some time. Wish I knew that before I saddled myself with a big mortgage for a property that is now unsellable. I bought in good faith, in an A zone and I am still in an A zone with a 9 ft elevation. Why is it that no one knew that FEMA was getting out of the insurance business. Or did they?

Good point Sam>

All good points and all tbd. You can only get 250k of flood anyway so looking at the premiums vs coverage will make a difference. I find it hard to believe that the mortgage companies will declare thousands of people in default.
As I said all tbd over time. Everybody should just stay calm. Perhaps flood will no longer be a requirement. That's just as likely as the banks reclaiming half the island.

I have a duplex with the first floor being a summer rental. If I do nothing I will loose the summer rental income. What's the general feeling in regards to doing repairs right now. We are on Bay ave. in the V zone and most likely we will be shy of BFE. My feel is do the work and see where the chips fall. What's your feeling?

By do the work I mean repair the flood damage.

Christie now claims that don't have to build to new standards, but need state permit for all new construction along coast. If you build at the higher elevation (one foot above FEMA ABFE maps) the state permit process will be simplified and fee waived. Otherwise have to pay $500 fee and go through permitting process.

Permit looks like it was intended for river flooding, and not coastal areas.
New Jersey Flood Hazard Area Control Act, the law cited, is listed on the DEP website for river flooding.

Someone needs to challenge this.

Here is the link to the state release:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2013/13_0006.htm

I read earlier that the historic district was going to be an exception from having to be raised - is it? But, what about original, historic Craftsman-style cottages, outside the historic district? I can't picture what these would look like, IF they could be raised. Mine is a duplex. The original cottage is the upper floor, but the space below it was turned into a rental apartment probably in the 1940s. Has anything been said about properties of this age & style?

Would raising the deductable help from say $2000.00 like we have now to say $20,000.00. I dont know what the banks would say to that but as often as storms come like this I would take the chance. You would (in rough estimations) be putting 20,000 out every 2 years anyway. What do you think??

Good point, give me a 50K deductible if thats the case, I'll take my chances.

What I'd like to know is how you even go about the process of raising a house up 2 feet if it is already on pilings. Where do you put the house while you are driving new ones? Does $30,000 even cover the cost of this operation? I don't qualify for the ICC, nor FEMA assistance.

Raising the deductible is a really great idea.

Great call on raising the deductible, I would be down with that and would have to think the banks holding the mortgages would like that idea. My plan of attack it to insure 625 sq. ft. house (-3.3 BFE) for $100k and no contents coverage. Best guess I would be paying between $3k to $4.5k Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Does anyone know the exact website that will bring up the new Ocean City map to see exactly which zone your property falls under?

Does anyone where to get a copy of the building requirements over the years? My house was built in 1984 and I nor my carrier has the base flood Elevation cert. Shouldn't the codes at the time have the height requirements?

I wish higher deductible would work but I dont think banks would go for it, depending on homeowners to come up with 20-50,000 in deductibles . I think they would be left with alot of keys on the table .

Another question I have is what happens if I own my upstairs of a duplex outright , am I still responsible for flood ins ? Dont know how this operates andneed to beeducated on this
Thanks again

Website for the advisory flood maps is:

http://fema.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=2f0a884bfb434d76af8c15c26541a545

Copy and paste both lines above into your browser. In the upper right corner, type in your street address, city and state and hit the magnifying glass to start the search. Your address should come up on the map, and the zone you are in will be labelled.

Try also the website access at www.region2coastal.com that has some great information in formats geared toward the average citizen. You can then click on the link on the right side of the page for Sandy Advisory Base Flood elevations, then on the next page scroll down and a link to the maps appears in the left hand column.

won't any increases in Insurance Premiums require a new act by congress to change the rates ? Current Law enacted in July 2012 allow the current rates to increase 20% a year for the next 5 years. Current Legislation expires in 2017
so a current premium of lets just say $ 2,000 /yr
by 2017 premium would increase to 4,976 /year

so where is the writer getting his figures ?

Can anyone help me with this ? My friend has a house on the beach on the south end to make a long story short they had 3 feet of sand in their living rm. he is still an A zone (on the beach). My house got water under the crawl space and I lost the heat ducts, I got moved to a V zone and I am 3 blocks from beach.

Antonio
Apparently the difference in zones is based upon risk of high velocity waves not just water height. Strange but true. Sorry

@Joseph Parrick, the premium changes cited in worst case examples have to do with how two different kinds of changes affect the hazard risk for a property. If the old maps had a property in the A zone and above the old base flood elevation NGVD29, and the new maps put it in the V zone and below the new BFE using NAVD88, under which everyone in OC loses 1.25 ft in elevation, there is a double whammy. This is a major change in classification of risk for the property, because what could have been at a foot above BFE on the old maps could become 4 or 5 ft BELOW BFE on the new map. Anyone who finds their property has had such a drastic change in classification may be better off waiting to decide whether and how high to raise their building until the Preliminary flood maps come out in the fall, as there are likely to be some areas that again shift flood zones. Keep in mind that the advisory maps just released are not being used to set your insurance rates. They are more like an early warning system that you may have a problem when the new maps are finalized,

where does this leave people in condo duplexes? Fight ing who has the money to raise or not OR who can afford the flood ins or not OR I cant pay you will have to wait for me to sell and somebody else take this burden over. Dont you think it will be a mess. In a perfect world everybody has all this money laying around waiting to do this.

Hey everyone ,heres a link to a facebook page thats keeping us informed in toms.riverand surrounding areas ,we will be fighting the maps inaccuracies and rates ,good luck to all of us http://www.facebook.com/StopFemaNow

Please pass this on also ,thanks

@Joseph Patrick, my understanding is that the charts reflect projections of what flood insurance will cost based on your elevation relative to base flood elevation. If, for instance, you were paying $2000 for flood insurance, it can go up 20% per year, to $2400 and then to $2980 the next year, based on your elevation against the old flood maps. Once the new maps come into play, even if you are still in the same zone, you will effectively be more than a foot lower because of the NAVD88 benchmark measurement, which might add another $1000 to $3000 to your bill. But if the new map also puts you in a higher risk zone than before, you could get slammed really hard. I don't think anyone is trying to scare people, but people just need to know that for their flood insurance to jump, say, from $400 to $20,000, they would have to be in a reclassified zone and be well below BFE, and that this would not occur until new maps are finalized in a couple of years. Don't get me wrong, though, some people will have drastic increases in flood insurance when the new maps are finalized, but some people will have moderate increases and some people will be relatively unaffected.

Talked to alot of my neghbors and nobody can pay for it or will and that is just on my block. I actually think banks are going to have to step in or they will be stuck with alot of beach property. Dont they have alot of say to what they will accept as far as insurance goes. Our flood insurance is in our mortgage so do they expect my payment to go from 1200 to 3400 a month and really expect to get it. Isnt this just plain logic?Then again doesnt the local municiples have any blame for the building problems ? My house was built in 1978 not 1840.

Re where the insurance figures come from, go back to the top of this article and click on the second photo. It shows a graphic prepared and displayed by FEMA showing projected insurance costs for each zone and deviation from BFE. This graphic contains the same information shown in the tables in the article. Note that the chart refers to AE and VE, not A and E, but I understand that the difference has to do with the amount and type of technical documentation that exists. I am to sure if A is different, and by how much, from AE, when it comes to rates. Nonetheless, the data is straight from FEMA.

Everyone - For what it is worth, I recommend that you not put much faith in the information and advice appearing in this string (and yes, that goes for this post too). The reliability has declined over its evolution - many of the earlier comments were from knowledgeable local architects and builders and you will note that they have dropped off (if you recognize their names). Here's my suggestion, for what that is worth: Identify subjects where you need additional information. Read what you can find and then list every relevant question that remains. Assign them to types of professionals and contact the appropriate professional to go over the question with you. They will likely qualify some of what they tell you with statements to the effect that what they know is what is currently the case and that may change. With this, you can get a geneal idea of what your options are and when to explore them. I hope someone finds this helpful.

If anyone is interested, I put a little web page together with a few photos of the damage to my house and a bunch of photos of the damage from 15th street and the boardwalk to the north end of the boardwalk. Also, please feel free to visit my website and view my art prints of Ocean City. I have been doing art shows in OC for many years. If you are interested in purchasing prints, I will be offering special pricing and I will donate part of the proceeds to a storm related charity in Ocean City. Which charity is to be determined. I am open to suggestions. Thanks! Gary

http://donnellyphotography.com/SandyOC/

http://donnellyphotography.com/artprints.htm?curFolder=jerseyshore

I was sent this link to check on my insurance claim. You'll need your policy number ready to sing up. Though it might be helpful.

https://www.insuredxchange.com/

I am confused. How is an uncertainty made into law? The FEMA maps are considered "advisory" and will be amended; yet the governor has made the advisories the law? How can this be the law?
Jim Arthur

Has anyone received an SBA loan yet to raise or re-build their house? Been told it takes months to get decision on the loans.

The biggert-waters act was signed into law in July 2012. That is why our flood insurance rates are going up. Some primary home-owners will continue to be grandfathered in. There are exceptions. Such as selling! The new owner will incur the full cost, based on bfe. So I for example, cannot sell because I am below bfe and no one will buy with the flood insurance @ 7-9 k per year! The legislation is actually fairly easy to read. I highly recommend it! Knowledge is never a bad idea. The rates are different ( as different as our circumstaces) for primary and secondary, A zone and V zone, business, renovation..... Worth the read!