Flood-battered N.J. waits for Bush to act
Monday, April 23, 2007

By RICHARD COWEN and HUGH MORLEY
STAFF WRITERS

The waters have receded, but the garbage and the health hazards are mounting as the nor'easter of 2007 piles misery atop misery on residents in flood-ravaged areas.

The Passaic River is expected to dip below flood stage today for the first time in a week -- marking the unofficial end to one of the worst storms ever to hit the state. The cleanup under way could last for months.

Federal disaster-relief officials visited flood-damaged North Jersey communities over the weekend as the state awaits President Bush's decision on granting assistance, congressional officials said Sunday.

An aide to Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, said the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, R. David Paulison, will come to flood-damaged Bound Brook today.

"He has told our office that he wants to see the devastation, the damage, firsthand," said Caley Gray, Pascrell's spokesman.

Gray added that an aide to the congressman spent the last week traveling with FEMA staffers around New Jersey. "We would be shocked if there was no declaration made," he said, referring to the president.
Red Cross office

• The American Red Cross has opened an office in West Paterson for flood victims seeking assistance. It is on the fourth floor of the PNC Bank building at 1 Garret Mountain Plaza.

• The building is visible from Route 80. Take the Squirrelwood Road exit from either side of the highway and follow the road into the PNC Bank parking lot.

• The office will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., beginning today. The American Red Cross offers a variety of assistance, including food, clothing and housing.
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Disaster relief plea

It still takes a stroke of the pen by President Bush to sign the declaration for New Jersey property owners to become eligible to receive federal money for damages that are not covered by private insurance. There are three types of FEMA declarations:

• One allows homeowners to receive financial assistance for damage not covered by their private insurance.

• Another allows state and local government to collect federal dollars to repair bridges, roads and public buildings.

• The third kind of declaration is combination of the two.

U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, both Democrats, and state police Superintendent Rick Fuentes are expected to join acting Gov. Richard Codey for the FEMA meeting. Officials said Paulison might fly over North Jersey.

Codey on Friday asked Bush, for the second time, to declare parts of the state a disaster area, said Michelle Presson, chief of staff to Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage.

Such a designation would allow the state to get FEMA assistance. It would include help for individuals who lost property and for municipalities whose infrastructure was damaged in the disaster.

Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, said the state congressional delegation on Friday sent another letter to Bush -- the delegation's second -- urging him to grant the designation. Like Codey's letter to Bush, the congressional missive narrowed an earlier request for a disaster designation across the whole state, to one focused on certain counties. Among them were Bergen, Passaic, Morris and Hudson counties.

"Federal inspectors have been working through the weekend to collect enough data to present Bush so he can issue a disaster declaration by [today[ or Tuesday," Rothman said.

Asked if it appeared that Bush would grant the designation, he said, "I'm hopeful."

Menendez and Rothman are expected to tour flood areas in Lodi. They will meet with Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney and mayors whose towns were affected by the nor'easter.

FEMA spokeswoman Kristina Simpson said federal aid is meant to fill in the gaps for property owners. It isn't a replacement for private insurance.

"It's important for homeowners to be realistic about FEMA aid," said Simpson. If a disaster is declared, she said, "the federal government is going to help the property owner. But it is not going to make them whole." She added that homeowners are eligible for a maximum of $27,500 in FEMA aid.

By the looks -- and smell -- of things, residents in North Jersey could use all the help they can get. Piles of garbage now line the streets in towns where the water has receded and homeowners spent the weekend moving storm-damaged carpets, furniture and clothing to the curb.

Sections of Wayne -- including Hoffman Grove and Fayette Avenue -- and Lincoln Park on the banks of the Pompton River were still under water Sunday. The power is off in many homes, making it impossible to pump basements.

A Red Cross shelter at Wayne Valley High School remained open overnight Sunday, and it anticipated 15 people would stay there, agency spokeswoman Mary Levis said Sunday.

One shelter closes

In Paterson, where the water was 11 feet deep in some areas at the height of the flood, the Red Cross closed the shelter at Passaic County Community College after the city government, Red Cross and community groups found temporary housing for the displaced families.

Everywhere, the air is thick with the smell of gasoline from ruptured fuel tanks and cars that were stranded in the flood. There are the health risks posed by mold and stagnant water.

Lirije Vlashi and her husband, Bashkian, returned to their Woodlawn Road in Lincoln Park home Sunday afternoon after spending six days in a hotel with their three children. She opened the door to find their furniture ruined, and Lirije raced into the bedroom to pull the family photos that were floating inside a drawer. She gently placed them on a bed to dry out.

The first floor was caked with 2 inches of mud. Four feet of water had to be pumped from basement, but there was no electricity, and no phone. Their neighbors found themselves in the same predicament.

The Vlashis are Albanian immigrants who moved from Paterson and bought their house for $100,000 in 2000. That was a year after the last big flood, when Tropical Storm Floyd hit in September of 1999. Recently, the home was appraised at $279,000, Lirije Vlashi said.

"We were told that was a 40-year-flood," Lirije Vlashi said. "So we didn't think it would happen again. We took a chance because Lincoln Park is a nice quiet town that is safer than Paterson and has better schools. Now we have to start over again. It feels like we're going in circles."

Looks like they are still waiting...

For the hundreds of North Jersey business owners shut down by last week's devastating floods, cleaning up the mess was likely the easy part.

Cleaning up the mess made by the mess may prove far more difficult.

At Adventures in Cooking last weekend, owner Arlene Ward, members of her staff and a small army of volunteers dragged bags of waterlogged refuse to the curb, tore up pieces of the badly buckled hardwood floor, and washed and disinfected anything salvageable.

Ward estimated the damage to her cookware store, off Mountain View Boulevard in a particularly hard hit area of Wayne, at around $150,000, most of which she expects will be covered by insurance.

Lost business is impossible to recover, however, and Ward's shop was closed for a week. "Every day the door is closed the register is locked, and that's what we depend on," she said.

Now that the floors have been mopped and the walls wiped down, business owners across North Jersey are asking similar questions as they look toward recovery:

Will the region be declared a federal disaster area, and what will it mean if it is? How much, if any, of the damage will be covered by insurance? How will companies that lost a full week's business cover payroll, rent, utilities and other expenses? How will customers be persuaded to remain loyal rather than switch to competitors who weren't overwhelmed by flooding?
Where to find help

Federal Emergency Management Agency: 800-621-FEMA (3362) or fema.gov/index.shtm.

U.S. Small Business Administration, New Jersey District Office: 973-645-2434 or sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/index.html.

State of New Jersey Business Call Center: 866-534-7789.

Bergen County Office of Emergency Management: 201-634-3100.

Passaic County Office of Emergency Management: 973-904-3621.

Some of those questions will be answered shortly. Others not so quickly.

Bergen and Passaic County officials were still waiting Tuesday to hear whether federal funds would be made available for the recovery effort.

If that happens -- a declaration by President Bush is expected within days -- business owners would be eligible for recovery and or relocation grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and low-interest loans administered through the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Typically, these funds are used for expenses not covered by insurance.

James Kosci, director for the SBA's district office in Newark, encouraged business owners to review the agency's Web site to familiarize themselves with the application process.

If and when the region is declared a federal disaster area, Kosci said, SBA representatives will be dispatched to post offices, libraries and fire stations throughout the region to hand out applications and answer questions.

Damages covered by insurance will depend on how much insurance the business owner purchased, which in many cases was not much.

Several business owners who were affected by the flood described their relationship with flood insurance as a Catch-22. Since their businesses lie in flood plains, they explained, flood insurance is expensive, too expensive for them to afford, in fact. Thus many elect to go without it.

Wamed Mansour said he decided to pass on the $6,000 to $7,000 a year in flood insurance premiums when he bought his car parts business, Beji Dismantling, on Presidential Boulevard in Paterson, earlier this year because the insurance would have covered only his building.

Mansour said he believed his cinder-block structure would surely survive a few inches of water now and then.

But the Passaic River rose 4 feet on some areas of Mansour's property, ruining much of his inventory and shutting him down for a week.

"We have to start all over again," he said. He assessed his damage at $80,000 to $100,000.

Just as troubling to Mansour as the physical damage is the damage the flood has caused to his relationship with his customers.

"I've been closed for a week and everything is backed up. People are waiting for their parts," he said.

A Bergen County contractor, who asked that the name of his business be kept out of the newspaper, said he was worried about getting an extension from the state for submitting requisitions for work completed on state projects.

With his office flooded and his computers shut down, he was certain to miss his monthly deadline, he said. And without an extension, he won't get paid for another month. Consequently, he won't be able to pay his operating costs, including his payroll, rent and utilities.

"That's the working capital I need to keep going," he said.

Then he listed his flood-related losses and expenses: $50,000 in equipment; $35,000 to $40,000 in business; $4,000 for 10 employees working at time-and-a-half on Saturday; $6,500 for his staff at double-time on Sunday; $10,000 in overtime this week to make up for lost time last week.

The state's Division of Taxation granted businesses affected by the storm a two-day extension for filing income taxes, but it was uncertain Tuesday whether extensions would be granted for submitting work requisitions.

Mark Perkiss, a spokesman for the state Department of Treasury, said extension requests will be handled on a case-to-case basis between contractors and the specific departments for whom work was completed.

Michael Venema owns a converted mill on Ryerson Avenue in Wayne that now houses more than 50 tenants, many of them small businesses that were shut down for days by the flood.

If those businesses aren't making money, they won't be able to pay their rents, he said.

"That's my fear. These people lost a week's worth of work and I'm wondering how they're going to pay me. If my renters don't pay me, how am I going to pay my property taxes?" he said.

Venema said $25,000 in quarterly property taxes is due next month.

Beyond that immediate concern, Venema said he's afraid he's going to lose tenants if something isn't done to prevent flooding in the future.

"We're like a little city down here. We're all two-, three- and four-person businesses and we're getting creamed. The next thing you know I'm gonna have an empty building here," he said.