Schumer Demands FEMA Extend Deadline to Appeal Flawed Flood Maps - Essential to Avoiding Tremendous Fees and Red Tape; FEMA Did Not Properly Notify Officials

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to give Onondaga County and the city of Syracuse more time to appeal FEMA's recent decision to require approximately 2,400 property owners to purchase flood insurance at an average cost of $800 per year. By law, FEMA is required to give adequate and substantial notice to local municipalities and residents if they intend to add additional properties to the county flood map --the document that delineates which properties are in flood zones. In this situation, however, FEMA only gave local residents and the county sparse notice that has left them scrambling to appeal.

"FEMA has an obligation to provide adequate notice, and for some reason that didn't happen," said Schumer. "As a matter of basic fairness, FEMA should give Onondaga County and all its municipalities more time to appeal this so homeowners aren't whacked with an $800 bill."

From the time that FEMA issues preliminary flood maps, indicating which property owners will be required to buy flood insurance, a community has 90 days to appeal. If an appeal is filed within the 90 day period, the county and city can provide information to FEMA, at no cost, that may remove homes from the maps. After the 90 day window, however, the maps are finalized. While homes can still be removed from finalized flood maps, it becomes much more difficult and expensive.

If the deadline is not extended, the county and city will likely have to pay to hire an engineer to produce data that could result in the properties being removed from the flood hazard map. In addition, the county and city have to pay FEMA a fee to dispute the maps. This additional cost would be avoided if the deadline is extended.

FEMA has the obligation to give notice to local officials and post an item in the Federal Register that indicates that preliminary flood maps have been issued, signaling the beginning of the 90 day appeal window. To supplement this notification, FEMA will usually place notices in local newspapers. However, in this case not all local elected officials were notified, notices were not placed in all appropriate local papers, and the notices that were placed had incomplete information.

Specifically, FEMA placed a small advertisement in December of 2009 in the Syracuse Post-Standard notifying that there would be a change in flood hazard maps in "Onondaga County." While every town in Onondaga County is affected by the new maps, the public notice in the Post-Standard only mentioned the Towns of Fabius, Otisco, Spafford, Marcellus, and Tully; and the Villages of North Syracuse and Solvay -- and made no mention of Syracuse or any other town in Onondaga County. This prevented local officials from responding in the allotted amount of time, and caused a situation where home and businesses owners had no time to appeal, and didn't know their property would be added until it was too late. The deadline to file an appeal passed on March 24th.

Because the public notice did not include all of the areas within Onondaga County where flood maps would be expanded, Schumer is asking FEMA to simply extend the deadline by which Syracuse and Onondaga County have to file an appeal. Schumer appeared with Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, stating that without an extension to appeal local homeowners will face sky-high insurance premium costs.

FEMA requires homeowners that it has determined to live in flood zones to purchase insurance to mitigate the cost of cleanup after a flood. FEMA determines whether a homeowner lives in a flood zone through a digital mapping process. FEMA began a comprehensive overhaul of its flood maps after it was revealed that the current paper maps were old and filled with errors. Despite the overhaul, FEMA's maps still have inaccuracies, which can force homeowners in areas without risk of flood to purchase costly insurance. By law, when FEMA plans to add homes to a flood map they are required to give substantial notice to local governments and residents through official notification to the county or through publication in the U.S. Federal Register. Because not all citizens have immediate access to the Federal Register, FEMA will also usually place notice in local newspapers.

FEMA is seeking to add approximately 2,400 properties to its local flood map, which would cost the average homeowner about $800. Today's public call by Schumer is an effort to apply pressure on FEMA to give Onondaga County and its municipalities more time to appeal FEMA's determinations. Many of the properties FEMA chose to include in their updated flood map haven't been flooded in decades.

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