By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City has regained its coveted ranking in a national program that provides flood insurance for homeowners.
The city briefly fell from its “Class 3” ranking to “Class 4” this year in the nationwide community rating system used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine the level of discounts homeowners receive on their flood insurance.
However, Sea Isle was just notified by FEMA that its Class 3 status has been restored, which means local homeowners are eligible for a 35 percent discount on their flood insurance compared to 30 percent for communities holding a Class 4 ranking.
“Sea Isle is one of only a handful of communities in the entire country that has been able to reach and maintain Class 3 status – and that’s a big feather in our cap,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said in a statement. “Not only does Class 3 status entitle local owners of compliant structures to a 35 percent discount on flood insurance premiums, it also indicates that we are a community that knows how to work together and get things done for the greater good, and that says a great deal about Sea Isle City and its people.”
Desiderio said FEMA recognized Sea Isle’s commitment to flood prevention “through mitigation, higher standards and outreach.”
Neil Byrne, Sea Isle’s construction official and floodplain manager, estimated that local homeowners will collectively save more than $1 million on their flood insurance policies by having the town back in the Class 3 category.
Only a small number of homeowners were affected by Sea Isle’s drop to Class 4 status because of the short time the city spent in the lower level, he said.
Byrne explained that Sea Isle dropped down to Class 4 for a few months following the loss of points formerly awarded by FEMA for flood-mitigation measures that communities implemented after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The “Sandy points” given to communities expired in 10 years, however. All communities lost those points, not just Sea Isle.
Sea Isle was also in the process of updating paperwork that communities must submit to FEMA every three years to show that they have implemented the flood-control measures needed to maintain their rankings, Byrne said.
The paperwork has since been completed. Sea Isle has also made a series of improvements with its flood management plan, watershed master plan, flood warning system and flood ordinance to help regain its Class 3 status, Byrne said in an interview Friday.
Earlier this year, Byrne noted that the city has already taken or is planning a number of steps to solidify its standing in the National Flood Insurance Program. They include enacting higher flood-elevation standards, rigorous maintenance of the drainage systems and more public outreach programs to educate local homeowners about flood insurance.
At one point in FEMA’s nationwide listings for communities that are part of the National Flood Insurance Program, Sea Isle was the only New Jersey municipality to have achieved a Class 3 ranking and was one of only a few towns across the country to do so.
Ironically, Sea Isle was once in danger of being kicked out of the National Flood Insurance Program in the 1990s – before it began its dramatic transformation to become a national model for flood-control measures.
Over the years, Sea Isle has implemented a series of major flood-mitigation projects, such as restoring the beaches and dunes, building bulkheads along the bayfront, reconstructing and elevating the roads, improving the drainage systems and erecting berms, levees and rock walls to block stormwater.
The city has also built a stormwater pumping station in the flood-prone bayfront neighborhood at 38th Street and Sounds Avenue. City officials say more pumping stations will be built to protect low-lying neighborhoods vulnerable to flooding.
“We work very hard at addressing flooding issues,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said.
Now that it has regained its Class 3 status, Sea Isle has hopes of ultimately moving up to Class 2, which would give local homeowners a 40 percent discount on their flood insurance, Byrne said.
“The ultimate goal is to get to the highest class that we can, to maximize any discounts that our insurance payers have. Class 2 would certainly be a goal,” Byrne said.
