Action needed to combat flooding

Published July 5, 2017
By Staci Berger

The proposed overhaul to the National Flood Insurance Program is a solid bipartisan solution. We respectfully disagree with your June 26 editorial on the overhaul ("Bill to redo flood insurance needs fixing"). Doing nothing is not a solution. Action must be taken to make sure our hardworking families don't lose their homes due to unaffordable flood insurance.

Limiting premium hikes doesn't create an incentive to build; it helps working families living in communities such as Keansburg, the Ironbound, Little Ferry, Moonachie, etc. Also, the buyouts you suggested are often too expensive and small in scale.

Where would New Jersey get the money to buy out everyone living along the shore and our rivers? Where would thousands of families of modest incomes go in a state where affordable options are few and far between?

Mitigation is key and the thrust of the bill. The bill increases investment in mitigation, providing homeowners the funding and incentive to lift their homes to a safe level so they're resilient for the next flood.

We cannot simply abandon our friends and neighbors who laid roots in communities near our oceans, bays and rivers. We applaud U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) for taking action to keep people in their homes.