About 28,000 Buildings In Nassau, New York In Flood Prone Areas According To New FEMA Maps

Nassau, NY (AHN) - Barrier beach villages in Nassau, New York, will likely be included in the new flood map the Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing.

The villages whose residents would likely be forced to purchase flood insurance policies upon their inclusion in FEMA's new flood map include Long Beach, Atlantic Beach, Point Lookout, parts of the Town of Hempstead, sections of Hewlett, Woodsburgh and Baldwin and buildings on the North Shore.

The maps would add 28,000 residential, commercial and public buildings soon to be considered at risk from inundation if their place would be hit by a storm or heavy downpour.

Because of their exclusion from the current flood map of Nassau, property owners in parts of South Shore are exempt from the flood insurance requirement and strict building benchmarks. These areas used to be classified as having a less than 1 percent chance of yearly flooding.

The updated flood maps of Suffolk County are slated for release by fall, according to Michael Dabney, director of FEMA's Mitigation Division in the region.

Flood insurance is a requirement to secure a mortgage for homeowners in an identified floodplain. The flood insurance is underwritten by the federal government at set rates and sold by insurance brokers. Building owners who purchase a flood insurance policy before the maps go in effect by July 2009 could lock in the lower rates they enjoy under the old map.

FEMA would have open houses in summer to guide residents through the changes in the flood maps to be released next year. Communities which has questions on technical matters may begin to challenge the maps through an appeal process that would start in September.

Some communities would be taken off the flood danger zone in the new FEMA maps to be released next year. But the mayor of Bayville cautioned residents that even if a flood insurance would no longer be compulsory for them, not owning a policy is risky.

"My advice to anybody who lives near water is to have flood insurance... In a storm, you never know how that storm is going to behave," Baysville Mayor Victoria Siegel told Newsday.