WASHINGTON - Oct. 1 is the day the federal government could partially shut down - if there's no agreement on a spending deal. It's also the day that flood insurance policyholders in nine states, including Louisiana, will hold rallies to push Congress to take action averting large premium increases. "We want to make this a national issue," said George...
WASHINGTON - Oct. 1 is the day the federal government could partially shut down - if there's no agreement on a spending deal. It's also the day that flood insurance policyholders in nine states, including Louisiana, will hold rallies to push Congress to take action averting large premium increases.
"We want to make this a national issue," said George Kasimos, an organizer of Stop FEMA Now, a multi-state organization formed to block large flood insurance increases. "People in New York, New Jersey and Louisiana know what's coming because we're getting the new flood maps. Flood maps in other states are coming later, some not until 2017, and we need to wake them up. Coming to a theatre near you."
Kasimos, whose Toms River, N,.J., home was filled with two feet of water from last year's Hurricane Sandy, said his rates are likely to increase from $1,000 a year to $9,500 without an expensive elevation project.
"We're getting lots of support from our congressional members in New Jersey, New York and Louisiana," said Kasimos, a realtor and broker. But still there's concern, he said, that a measure delaying some of the larger rate increases for a year still is stalled - after being incorporated into a House-passed spending bill.
Louisiana's two rallies are scheduled Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Lafourche Central Market in Raceland, starting at 11 a.m. and at the Alligator Festival in Luling, which is supposed to run for the entire day with help of a Stop FEMA booth.
Other rallies will be held in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Florida, Iowa, and Alabama.
"We want the program to be self sufficient, but we can't afford to pay 60 percent of our income on flood insurance," Kasimos said.
Last week, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told a Senate hearing that he, too, believes it is bad policy to force exorbitant premium increases on middle class homeowners, but that he was given no flexibility under the Biggert-Waters flood insurance bill that Congress enacted last year to improve the program's financing. It was passed with broad bipartisan support, including from the entire Louisiana delegation.
