By Donald Wittkowski
Mayor Leonard Desiderio announced Tuesday that Sea Isle City has been upgraded in a community rating system for the National Flood Insurance Program, meaning that local property owners will receive even bigger discounts on their flood insurance premiums.
Sea Isle, which had been in danger of being thrown out of the program in 1993, has undergone a dramatic transformation since then and is now considered one of the nation’s leading communities in flood prevention, Desiderio noted.
“We have gone from the worst to the best,” he said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the flood insurance program, has boosted Sea Isle’s community rating from Class 5 to Class 3. By moving up the ladder two steps, it means that Sea Isle property owners will now be eligible for a 35 percent discount on their flood insurance policies. Previously, they had received a 25 percent discount.
“This is a very, very good Christmas present for Sea Isle City,” Desiderio said.
Sea Isle is now the only municipality in New Jersey designated by FEMA as a Class 3 community. Only a handful of cities and counties across the nation are considered Class 3 or higher, Desiderio pointed out.
“We’re in some really, really good company,” he said.
More than 6,000 properties in Sea Isle are insured through the National Flood Insurance Program. Overall, the higher designation to Class 3 will save policyholders in Sea Isle an average of $291 annually on their flood insurance premiums. Previously, the discount was $208 annually, Desiderio said.
As a town, Sea Isle and its property owners will save a total of $1.9 million annually in flood insurance costs under the new Class 3 designation. The savings had been $1.3 million when Sea Isle was a Class 5 community, the mayor said.
While making his announcement at a City Council meeting, Desiderio contrasted Sea Isle’s flood-mitigation efforts these days to those when he first took office as mayor in 1993. He recalled that during his first week on the job in 1993 he learned that the town was on the verge of being removed from the National Flood Insurance Program for not doing enough to prevent flooding.
If FEMA had expelled Sea Isle from the program then, it would have meant Sea Isle property owners would not have been able to get flood insurance coverage for their homes or businesses, leaving them exposed to the ravages of Mother Nature.
Sea Isle was put on probation then by FEMA, giving it more time to implement flood-control measures. But in the last 24 years, the town has become one of the role models nationwide in flood protection. As a result, it has been rewarded by FEMA for its efforts.
“That’s some good news for Sea Isle. Once again, we are on the map,” Desiderio said of the Class 3 designation.
Sea Isle’s watershed management plan is the centerpiece of the city’s flood-control efforts. It includes policies for floodplain and stormwater management. The plan was amended by City Council earlier this year as part of the push for an even higher community rating from FEMA.
The city’s stormwater management projects, open space, higher standards for flood prevention and bigger dunes along the beachfront have all paid dividends, explained Neil Byrne, Sea Isle’s construction and zoning officer.
Byrne also noted that the simple fact that homes and public buildings are being constructed at a higher elevation has helped to protect properties from flooding. The elevation of Sea Isle’s new City Hall, for instance, was built 5 feet above the minimum flood standards, he said.
“The city is leading by example with our municipal buildings and our higher standards,” Byrne said.
Byrne was praised by Desiderio for doing “some unbelievable work” in the city’s flood-control partnership with FEMA.
Despite its gains in flood protection over the years, Sea Isle, a low-lying barrier island, is hardly immune to flooding.
Almost on a regular basis, residents and business owners appear before City Council to complain about flooding in their neighborhood and demand that something be done to stop it.
The city is in the midst of a major flooding study that is moving along in phases and scheduled for completion in August 2018.
City officials have warned that it will take a huge amount of money to finance a comprehensive flooding plan, including the construction of better drainage systems, new pumping stations, dikes and road projects.
Although the study will focus on a long-term strategy, a series of flood-control measures are underway in Sea Isle or have already been completed, such as beach and dune replenishment projects and new road and drainage improvements.
