Fight flood insurance hikes

The US Senate will vote on a delay of FEMA's exorbitant annual premiums shortly. 

NJ's Senators are on board, but please email our members of the House of Representatives to support the proposed Homeowner's Flood Insurance Affordability Act. 

All 50 states are impacted, so tell your friends elsewhere to do the same! 

“I’m excited to join US Senator Robert Menendez at the Capitol on Tuesday (Jan. 7) for a news conference to rally support for the upcoming Senate vote on the Homeowner's Flood Insurance Affordability Act,” asserted George Kasimos of Toms River, founder of Stop FEMA Now.

“Unless it passes, 5 million flood insurance policyholders in all 50 states will be hit with huge annual premiums, making their homes unaffordable to keep and virtually impossible to sell,” he declared. “That’s why I urge people across the country to contact their state's Senators now and urge them vote for this crucial bill.”

Kasimos said there is “broad, bipartisan support” for the legislation originally introduced by Menendez (D-NJ) on the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy's devastation of New Jersey and New York in October. The Senator noted that it has 28 co-sponsors.

“I will be in the Capitol all day lobbying Congress to adopt it,” Kasimos stated. “We need citizens to invite their Senators and Representatives to come get the facts from me in Senator Menendez’s office, Room SH528 of the Hart Senate Office Building, from 2 to 3 PM Tuesday. I can give them first-hand information about the severe financial hardships being imposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Kasimos' house was flooded by the storm, but he decried “the man-made disaster that followed” when FEMA revealed new flood zone maps, home-elevation mandates and “exorbitant annual premiums that will crush most homeowners.”

He said he is “grateful to Senator Menendez and Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) for their leadership on the bill that would freeze federal flood insurance premium increases on most single-family properties impacted by the new maps until FEMA completes an affordability study, provides solutions to mitigate their effect, and scientifically certifies their accuracy.”

Sen. Menendez this week stated that the “skyrocketing” flood insurance premiums would “force victims out of their homes, cause property values to drop” and be “a major obstacle to recovery.”

Stop FEMA Now has thousands of members along the New Jersey Shore. It and affiliated grassroots citizens' organizations from Vermont to Louisiana to Hawaii held 16 public protest rallies in September. More information is on the organization’s website, StopFemaNow.com.

US Senators may be reached at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

and members of the House of Representatives may be reached at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/