![]() ![]() Twenty years later, Sandy wrecked Pettyjohn’s home. “You don’t look at this to be a reoccurring situation.” “When somebody tells you, ‘Oh, this is something that happens once in 100 years,’ you figure, ‘Well, how long am I going to be in the house?’” she said of the 1992 storm. When she closed on her Mermaid Avenue home, she was told she needed flood insurance, “but no one ever said that it was a real risk,” said Pettyjohn, who is president of the Coney Island Beautification Project. The Coney Island resident bought her current home in 1999, just seven years after a major nor’easter caused such bad flooding that parents formed a bucket brigade at her daughter’s school so the kids could leave the building. Retiree Pamela Pettyjohn found herself in that category after Sandy. The group is pushing for a slate of policies to strengthen the New York region’s ability to cope with the effects of climate change, including more resources for people who already live in flood zones but may not have the means to retrofit or leave. “You might think that you’re getting a cheaper home in Canarsie, but the reality is you might have to pay an increasing policy year over year,” she said. Kate Boicourt, the Alliance’s director of resilience, said homeowners and renters should have “a right to know,” especially when flood risk comes with hidden costs, most notably for insurance. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) that would strengthen flood risk disclosure requirements. The Waterfront Alliance is getting behind a State Senate bill introduced in June by Sen. Locally, advocates are pushing for New York to change its own laws. Flirting With Disaster: Flood Zones Still Uninsured Years After Sandy.That bothered him so much that, in 2018, he created his own disclosure form as a template that could be used by sellers and shared it with local officials and real estate leaders. “And when they found that out, they found out at the closing,” when flood insurance was tacked on to their monthly costs. ![]() “When I held the community meetings, time and time again, (local residents) said that they had no idea that they were in a flood zone,” he said. Tirone became aware of the law’s loophole after Superstorm Sandy in 2012 as he and his neighbors muddled through the recovery process, waging a battle to get the state to buy out their homes on the South Shore. “For $500 bucks, the seller can say, ‘I’m giving you $500 and I’m not filling this out.’ And 99% of people do that,” said Joseph Tirone, a longtime Staten Island real estate agent. That’s because in New York a flood risk report required by state law upon a sale can be waived - with a $500 credit to the new owner. But for would-be homeowners in flood-prone areas, the potential for damage can be effectively invisible. With a tropical storm hitting the city and a “busy” hurricane season upon us, severe flooding is a real threat. ![]()
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