Bayshore towns plan for natural emergencies Officials of 10 towns meet with residents to discuss mitigation BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - Officials from 10 towns in the Bayshore area have joined together to keep their towns safe in the case of a natural hazard emergency. Bayshore residents were invited to attend a public information session at Port Monmouth Elementary School onApril 28 on the Natural HazardMitigation Plan as part of a countywide effort to lessen the impact future emergencies could have on residents and property. The session, sponsored by the Bayshore Emergency Management Alliance (BEMA), provided residents with a status report on the known Monmouth CountyMulti-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning Project. The goal of the project is to create a long-range action plan to mitigate the effect that natural hazards such as hurricanes and winter storms can have on the community. BEMA, a regional group of emergency management coordinators, represents residents fromAberdeen,Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet, Keansburg, Keyport, Highlands, Holmdel, Matawan, Middletown and Union Beach. BEMA has been working on this plan in partnership with the Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and neighboring municipalities. "The county was awarded a planning grant from FEMA in 2006 with the whole process of receiving contractors and legalities that come with that," said Margaret Murnane, the county's deputy emergency management coordinator. "We started this plan and this process in April of 2007; since then, these 10 towns and their officials have been working very diligently to get these kinds of grants." Murnane said that all of the county's municipalities have signed on to work with the county OEM. "When we began this process, we checked with all 53 municipalities in the county and asked them if they wanted to participate or not, and everyone did agree," Murnane said. "The county took the lead in the process and got the information and surveys out there so we could complete this as efficiently as possible. These surveys and meetings are done to get the information needed so that we can get the grants from FEMA." Once the surveys are completed and a plan is put into place, it will be presented to participating municipalities and to the state police for their review and approval, and then finally to FEMA, accordingMurnane. The survey lists a number of natural hazards such as drought, erosion, flooding, hurricanes and mud slides, and asks residents whether they have experienced a natural hazard and how concerned they are. It also asks how prepared a resident feels their household is for the impact of a natural hazard event likely to occur in Monmouth County. Mitigation activities are "actions you can take to protect your home and property from natural hazard events such as floods, severe storms and excessive temperatures." "Monmouth County is preparing anAll Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan to formulate and document mitigation strategies that will aid our community in protecting life and property from the impact of future natural disasters," the survey states. Michael Harriott, president of the Union Beach Borough Council and the town's emergency management coordinator, said that there are five programs the county is eligible for. "The first program is called Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program, [which] is for elevating the existing public and private structures," Harriott said. "If you have a structure in your house that is repetitively flooded, there will be money available to elevate that house. If you voluntarily say that you no longer want out of your house, there is money available to acquire your building and relocate." From there, the house will be torn down and the land will not be able to be built on. The potential money available for the program is $250 million per year statewide, which is paid by a 75 percent to 25 percent split. Seventy-five percent will be paid by FEMA, while the local government will pay the other 25 percent. The second program is for people who have repetitive problems such as constant flooding. "The goal of the project is to reduce or eliminate these problems," Harriott said. "The grants are rewarded at 100 percent from FEMA assistance at a total of $50 million per year." The third program is for severe repetitive loss. For this the resident must have four or more flood insurance claims within a year that lowers the assessed value of the home. At the 75-25 percent ratio, 11.4 million per year is available for this program. The fourth program is a hazard mitigation grant that is available for a municipality to recover from a storm, which is a 7.5 percent of the total allowable money presented by the president for the state. The final program is a flood mitigation assistance that provides money to eliminate long-term flooding risks. If a resident is already in the flood insurance program, the money goes toward this emergency. Charlie Rogers, coordinator of Middletown's office of emergency management, said that the main concern of the program is the safety of the people in the Bayshore area. "Our job is to get you out of the Bayshore in case of an emergency," Rogers said. "Moving your families to a safe location is our main goal." Rogers said that these surveys are the first step into helping these people and receiving grants. "We need a large number of people to fill out these surveys, so when we send them to FEMA they have no choice but to give us these grants," Rogers said. "These meetings and information should help that."