Schumer backs Wheatfield floodplain fight

Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, March 5, 2009

In an effort to help save homeowners in the Town of Wheatfield from costly flood insurance fees, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer has called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to re-examine the homes included in the newly established floodplain map to ensure that the maps are a precise representation of the flood zones.

"Wheatfield homeowners are getting slapped with mandatory, onerous flood insurance fees that in many cases could be completely unnecessary - and it couldn't come at a worse time. As we all work through these tough economic times, the last thing homeowners need is a $1,100 fee," Schumer said. "The town already assumed the cost of an expensive engineering study to ensure a thorough and accurate flood mapping process. Residents should not have to bear the burden of funding another study in search of more discrepancies. I urge FEMA to work with Wheatfield officials to reevaluate the flood maps based on the town's existing engineering study."

The town engineering study succeeded in removing more than half of the homes that FEMA claimed were in a new floodplain. Now, the remaining 387 homeowners are faced with the choice of paying up to $1,100 every year in mandatory flood insurance, or funding another expensive engineering study in the hopes of finding more discrepancies in the FEMA flood plain map, Schumer said.