file photo by Boyd Loving
In New Jersey, rising flood insurance rates not just an issue at the shore
BURLINGTON CITY — If flooding were a real concern for Taylor Rambo, he said he wouldn’t have built a bar in his basement.
Yet he pays about $2,700 each year for flood insurance he is required to have as part of his mortgage, and the amount is likely to rise quickly as the federal government raises premiums paid by home and business owners through the subsidized National Flood Insurance Program.
“It worries me a lot because it makes my escrow go up and I can’t afford it,” said Rambo, who said he hasn’t had any water in his basement in the 17 years he’s owned his house in Burlington City, a blue-collar town between Philadelphia and Trenton and about 45 miles from the New Jersey shore, where flooding has become a high-profile and expensive problem.
More than 1,000 property owners in Burlington City, which is situated along the Delaware River, paid $1.5 million in premiums subsidized by the program last year. In the 40 years the community has been part of the program, residents have received payouts of only about $500,000.
That’s a sharp contrast with several towns on the shore — including Toms River, Union Beach and Sea Bright — where the historic payouts have been 50 times the premiums collected there each year. (Associated Press/Press of Atlantic City)
That’s why its called insurance. Spread the risk