MONROE: FEMA funding for Irene Irene still of concern

Kaitlyn Kanzler, Special Writer
   MONROE — Residents voiced their concerns to the township about their Hurricane Irene-damaged homes and the status of the four Federal Emergency Management Agency mitigation grants the township applied for.
   Township Engineer Ernest Feist applied for four FEMA mitigation grants to help pay the costs of repairs for the town. The plan, which would cost an estimated $2 to $4 million, would provide funds to repair and improve the Forest Park Terrace and utilities levees and help with the Cedar Brook and Cedar Brook Pond flooding, Mr. Feist said at the township’s meeting Monday.
   The $2 to $4 million represents 75 percent of the cost of the project, Mr. Feist said stating the township committed up to $1 million to pay the remaining 25 percent of the project cost. He suggested if the cost exceeds what the township is committed to, there may be a county or state program the township can use as a second source of funding.
   ”We have to make an analysis locally,” Mayor Richard Pucci said.
   For residents whose homes were damaged by the flooding, answers and funding are not coming fast enough.
   ”Seventeen homes flooded. I lost my entire home,” said Virginia McGinnis, of Nantucket Lane in the Rossmoor Active Adult community. “Someone needs to take responsibility.”
   Sharon Decker, also of Nantucket Lane, had her house flood three times in 2011.
   ”It’s a terrible problem,” Ms. Dekker said to the council.
   ”Unfortunately, FEMA is going to get more bang for their buck,” Mr. Feist said. “About one-fourth of the FEMA funds will go to a town that lost hundreds of homes.”
   Ms. McGinnis, who has lived in Rossmoor since 2010 and lost all of her possessions to flooding, pointed out that, between 1973 and 2003, the area where the community is built never flooded. She believes something changed.
   ”There’s a greater flow into Rossmoor, but we haven’t had an increased outflow,” Ms. McGinnis said.
   The Cedar Pond Creek that flows into Cedar Pond, located in the Rossmoor community, is clogged with reeds and other debris, creating choke points. Choke points are areas that slow the flow of water and make it difficult for an increased outflow to other basins and ponds.
   According to Mr. Feist, Dan Rush, Rossmoor’s engineer, filed for a stream cleaning permit before Hurricane Irene, trying to create a faster stream flow, but there has been no answer from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
   ”Everything comes down to funding. I’m an engineer and love designing projects, but I can’t design projects without funding,” Mr. Feist said.
   ”The NJDEP (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection) is holding up the permits because they are the DEP,” Ms. McGinnis said.
   Some suggested improvements to expand the capacity of the Cedar Brook Pond through dredging, widen the brook and clear the choke points and utilize the adjacent golf course’s irrigation system to shift water from the pond to the various ponds located on the golf course’s grounds.
   Another recommendation from Mr. Feist was to have a permanent pump station in the Cedar Brook Pond area that would be activated manually and would be a cooperative effort between the township and the DEP. Portable pumps have been used in the past when the pond needed increased capacity, but Mr. Feist said that could not be a permanent solution.
   According to Mr. Feist, Mr. Rush and he agree a permanent pump is the only way to fix the flow of the creek and pond.
   ”When the basins were being built in the late ‘70s, they were built to the requirements at that time, not today’s requirements,” Mr. Feist said. “The amount of rain far exceeded the design criteria.”
   The Rossmoor community had 20 homes assessed as severely damaged while the Forest Park Terrace area had around 50 homes severely damaged, the most out of any area in Monroe.
   ”If someone calls and says they have water in their basement, they’re put on a list. Same thing for people who had 5 feet of water on their first floor,” Mr. Feist said. “If anyone called with any water damage, they were put on the list.”
   Approximately 220 homes in Monroe had some form of water damage, and around 70 to 80 of them had severe damage. The damaged ranged from flooded basements to entire first floors being flooded.
   FEMA sends people out into areas reported by police and firemen as well as residents to do damage assessment and catalogues the damage within one to two days. Over time, the 10 percent to 20 percent of people in isolated areas reach out to FEMA after seeing the assistance the reported areas received.
   The Aug. 28 storm left hundreds of residents without power for several days and caused millions of damage in New Jersey and billions of dollars in damage along the East Coast.