Face it, Tubbo Mc Fleecejacket only cares about his Big Business Masters. He says and does what he's told. It would seem that his War On The Working Class (tm) is proceeding as planned and YOU IDIOTS will vote him in for a second term.

I am concerned about Tubbo Mcfleece fleecing his sandy aid collection and how bad it looks it can be. Am I the only one concerned about our fearless leader making money dissappear miraculously from his fund? What if his wife is home on the couch counting the donations and he sits down next to her. how many millions could hide under his enormous hide? lol.

I believe letting the Sierra clubs president to have a open forum in the way of a column against Patch terms of service his articles are bias misleading inaccurate
and incomplete . Building green in now way shape or form is cheaper it cost on average 30 - 40 percent more . No where is the fleecing of the victims being mentioned as way of insurance premiums . Go save hunterdon county go save the trees and pine barrens but for gods sake stay the hell off the shore . Oh by the way the governor. Adopted the new advised maps not the old 1980 maps . Any first year newspaper boy could research that .Where would you like all these people to live Tittel? I have a great idea why dont you get your gloves and some Sierra members and go clean some wetlands we cant manage now .

Jeff, why don't you go get a real job

Did Mr.Tittel join the Tea Party? All this concern about the financial burden on taxpayers. That's new. Can we remind YOU of the cost to taxpayers when you present your positions?
The Sierra Club's idea of sensible economic development is to walk away. Regarding our natural resources it's "don't use it, don't even walk on it". Maybe you can look at it from a distance as long as you get there by walking or riding your mule.

Christie didn't create the FEMA maps, an Obama appointee did. Of course like all of Jeff's columns....Full of BS.

Jeff and his merry-men of nut-jobs (AKA as the Sierra Club) will do anything to support TAX TAX TAX.

My view is that the damages caused by natural disasters, their mitigation and prevention is a very serious matter in need of thoughtful discussion.

Given the losses to those directly affected by Sandy, the loss or reduction in rateables along the shore, as well as the activities of local governments, is going to be costly to all property tax payers in Ocean, Monmouth counties and to those affected in New York State. State taxes/services will also be affected because of the need for State agencies to just do their job (which they did and are doing).

Utility damages, especially above ground, will also greatly affect us. To ask JCP&L and others to prevent outages from these "100 year" storms will result in very high costs that will be passed on to the overall ratepayer, not just those in affected areas.

So, maybe the small steps that are now being taken, accompanied by non-political, thoughtful and knowledgeable studies will result in long term decisions and regulations that impact us all fairly.

@TR My house has been here since 1920 and will remain here and it was the government that put it here my house was the bay tender for the railroad trestle and causeway when they were built . Should we now tear down all these homes TR .. sell them to your buddies @Walther homes Aren't you the guy that said the numbers where being blown out portion that the number homes effected was less than 4000 . Care to eat your crow now our later .

You have no answers just criticism Explain how building green now adding 30 _ 40 percent higher costs a help with the burdens of the New Insurance Rates . what are people to do with there sub standard damaged homes . Perhaps over the long run yes they will save money I dont see it in the current homes that are built green . Only in heating and electric systems and types window you use. Long hall saving .

Where is the sierra club members i dont see them here in this wildness rich environment cleaning anything up .Out bird watching at the DUMPS . No trying to save there homes that where they are .

Foley is corect. All NJ taxpayers as well as all ederal Tax Payers pay the cost for beach replentishment by private homes , and the costs to inbsurance companies for flood losses are paid by all of their insured clients through rate increases.

'Farm' preservation and open space preservation is mostly unused or unavailable to the general public, however now wouyld be the best time to buy up shore propertry and make it all public beach so we can stop dumping money into other peoples properties. If they don't want to sell now, then they should be told to make sure they have enough insurance because FEMA will not pay any more funds after this year to flood property along say 500' of the shore. It just does not make sense to keep rebuilding with taxpayer money, knowing in a few years it'll happen again

Jeff just got the Hess refinery in Woodbridge closed down. Now 170 families have no income as well as all the store and delis nearby that the workers went to.

Oh, and gas will now become more expensive too for you people.

Great Job Jeff....

Dear Press, Public Officials and Flood Insurance Property Owners:
What we want are our Politicians to change;
1) A thorough re-evaluation of the flood zones, in a timely fashion.
2) Evaluating if we raise the dunes a few feet if it will significantly reduce all our flood levels and insurance premiums.
3) Getting quick answers as to who gets the mitigation grants, when they get the grant and for how much.
4) Creative ways to lower our flood insurance premiums
5) Grace period of a few years before the rise in flood insurance premiums
6) FEMA to notify all homeowners of the impending new flood insurance rates and elevation requirements

What we want from all Flood Insurance homeowners to do;
1) Copy and paste this email and send to your local, state, federal politicians and members of Press.
2) Form Coalition to protect our interests.
3) Spread the word to your neighbors

George Kasimos
www.facebook.com/StopFemaNow

Who are you jeff? Wrong again no facts christie has been great unlike corzine who lied and cheated! Get the facts then send those sierra guys to barnegat bay to help us clean up . All lip service, if someone disagrees w you then there an idiot? To use this as your personal platform is sad and you sir are misguided

Does anyone see what a special interest group can do and get accomplished. The middle class is not organized and is not heard.

This guy is getting his way while the rest of us pay the frieght. Time we become our own special interest group.

We have started our own special interest group for people who have FEMA flood insurance issues

www.facebook.com/StopFemaNow

When any government lackey says they will "streamline procedures" and "cut red tape". What they mean is they will create 3 more agencies staffed by of 30 their friends, relatives and campaign contributors at 6 figure salaries and benefits to commission (not perform themselves) studies for 5 years to develope a set of procedures to streamline the previous procedures.

Now this guy is in the way of progress and JOBS in Morris County.

Please, lets all help Jeff turn the state into a welfare commune.

http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2013/01/mount_olive_hopes_to_fill_larg.html#incart_river_default

Didn't Al gore get his global warming lies, err facts from the Sierra Flub? The selling of his network to big oil Al Jazeera, just reaffirms the hypocrisy and lies regarding the entire environmental movement. But conservatives already knew this. Read Climate -Gate.

Maybe Gore got his "facts" from the same place Bush got his for the Iraq War

So my question is this...while Jeffy boy puts us all out of work, just how much does he pull down through this sham charity.

What kind of connections has he made for favors and jobs, why can't we have a public record of his earnings.

So, I think we understand the problems/frustrations with all of this.

To me, the real question is by what means can we have an impact on:
1 - NJ, decisions/legislation and,
2 - Federal (FEMA, et.al. decisions/legislation.
3 - The Politics of all of this!
We can have a voice in this at those levels and the question is how.

I don't think bad mouthing our Governor (who is very popular) is going to influence the majority to listen to our views. I do think that if we can come up with a forum that can legitimize our thoughts, can have a huge impact on the decision making process.

So, let's get "serious" about this!

Bailouts aside, FEMA is not too big to fail The N F I P certainly isn't. Yet, they both have over and over again, and at many levels. The N F I P is a monopoly, or at the very least, an oligopoly. That it exists, undermines the free market system, that is the backbone of America. Surely, our legislative leaders are aware of the Sherman Act:

[The Sherman Act is divided into three sections. Section 1 delineates and prohibits specific means of anticompetitive conduct, while Section 2 deals with end results that are anticompetitive in nature. Thus, these sections supplement each other in an effort to prevent businesses from violating the spirit of the Act, while technically remaining within the letter of the law. Section 3 simply extends the provisions of Section 1 to U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.]

Apparently, our "leaders" haven't gotten wind of section three yet.

Don't complain about Christie. I live in Florida. We have Rick Scott. Believe me, be thanksful for what you have.

Are you guys in fla having the same issues with raising your homes and substantial flood insurance increases

this all makes me sick

Hey Jeff: the F in FEMA stands for FEDERAL. It's one of those pesky little agencies run by that guy you worship, Obama. Don't bitch about Christie. Your argument has no merit.

I live 1000 miles from Jerey. I always hated Christie until lately. Now he seems OK. To bad he's a Republican, but there's signs of common sense in him. He seems to care about his state. He can't please everyone. The truth about a politician's lot is that everything they do, no matter what it is, they alignate half the people.

All these grown men calling our gov names, you guys need counseling. Second guys like jeff who do not help out just mouth out ideas i have no use for. Fema was a big help but we didnt take more than we needed. Most of the people that disagree with the gov have no argument at all. But you should respect his office. I do not agree with most of obamas plans but i do respect his office

I have huge problems with what is going on with the new height elevations. We built our house in 1998 - not to Fema specs - but to a combination of building codes from the outer banks of NC and Florida coastal building regulations. This was done with a top architect who understood we wanted to build the best hurricane prevention house possible.

We are on 10' pilings and did absolutely everything the American Association of Architects has worked up for those very badly and chronically hit areas down south. Today my husband found out that even though we stayed through the storm and the house was dry, we now have to build up four more feet to satisfy what Berkeley Township wants.

We live on the bay in an area fronted by 3' of water and while many of our neighbors' homes were flooded it was because they had started out as fishing cabins in the 1950's and were converted into mainly summer homes. They on the ground were hit with 2' of water. Most of those folks want to return but on the side of this area that is fronted by a Lake, the new height requirement is 10' pilings because we all have been labeled as class V homeowners. Problem is that that V was developed for oceanfront and Gulf front housing - not houses on a shallow bay.

I finally looked at the new fema map and on the photograph layer found that our house now with a black mark, was rated based on an empty lot that we did buy and build on. Out of date is not the word for the data being used. And our beach has tripled because the Army Corps of Engineers dumped zillions of tons of sand on the beaches of the rich and famous of LBI. The sand thought better of that and came in the inlet and graced us with a much larger beach than is shown on the Fema map.

So based on data from a probably twenty year old photo of an empty lot and without any information about this extraordinarily built hurricane prevention house, not only will we now face insurance bills that only one percenters can afford but to that we are supposed to look at paying for the hoisting of this house with an extremely heavy trussed roof so that four more feet can be added to the height of this house. Our roof is at the maximum now so I guess we are also going to be required to chop of the short attic that holds that trussed roof.

I wrote to Fema and they say they got their data from Berkeley Township but the town says it's Fema's stuff. And Governor Christie says let's all jump aboard on these truly pie in the sky pilings that our house proved we do not need. Structural engineers are saying people in our situation would be endangering the stability of a very strong house if we went through the mandates of this town which the Governor also supports.

What is really at fault here is the flimsy building codes that this town has kept in out of date order for decades. Builders didn't want to have to put the relatively small amounts of money into better built homes because they wanted to keep their selling prices down. Builders are great at sending campaign donations and so people not realizing what was going on, just tried to keep abreast of the codes that emanated from our very well paid civil servants and elected ones as well.

People on our local payroll don't seem up to the job so the town has hired a not inexpensive engineering firm to determine the fate of the displaced as well as those who made it through the storm. From where all of us in my neighborhood sit, we are being programmed to fail by people from fema, the State, the County and the Town and if this continues on between the empty strip malls and the terrain that looks like a war zone, Bayville and Berkeley will just sink further in the list of good places to live. Meanwhile better run towns like Lacey and Belmar and many others are busy maxing out all of the grant money around while they are also busy trying very hard to help those who were hurt so badly.

So many letters to the Patch blame the residents when it would be much more appropriate to blame Town Hall which caved time after time to any builder around. The displaced people did live up to the laws in place and now want to rebuild but that means paying their old mortgages, slightly reduced taxes that will skyrocket when they complete their new homes, unbelievable class V insurance premiums for houses 10' or 14' in the air, and of course the Fema loan which is for some reason coming from the SBA (?) and that payment will be added to their current mortgages.

The despair caused by the mismanagement and overreaction to a one in a hundred year storm is literally taking years of people's lives. There are no straight answers coming from anywhere and no a single dime has been paid to any of my neighbors.

The so called fema money was given to the displaced who had no nearby friends or relatives to take them in. Those housing accommodations have been sub par and fine if you are prepared to live in Section 8 housing say in Camden.

It's time for the truth. I would love to hear from any and all of our representatives or people we are paying to mismanage all of this to find out what the ultimate goal is. We out here have all paid our very high taxes on time, we have no children in the school system and basically get once a week garbage pick up and three day late snow removal for all the bucks we send to Town Hall.

My question is simple. Who are you folks working for and please if you want us gone which is what we feel, just confirm it so we can go on with our lives elsewhere. It's no wonder NJ is a major laughing point for the rest of this nation. Things are a mess. Things are corrupt. No one is trying to change that atmosphere and it is smothering many decent people.

seen christie on letterman last nite he said build up or your going to high ins. costs .It seems they are trying to squeeze people out and the one s that hang on and rebuild the ins will kill people in the long term who ever is left wont be many might be bought out to leave

Can't the forces that be, ie fema government insurance programs, just come out with a few simple numbers to see how much the owners of these vunerable beach homes pay in comparison to the billions going to keep rebuilding them for all others stuck picking up the huge differences in the two.

Fema was working on changing the maps prior to Sandy. I say class-action law suit. I just purchased my home a few years ago and prior to buying trusted FEMA and their maps. My house was 1 foot over advised elevation. I checked to be sure I could afford my flood insurance and moved forward. Now FEMA says they maps and advised elevation were not accurate and I need to raise my house 4 feet to pay $3,500/year. Since I did not get water in my house I don't qualify for any grants. I live in a small ranch, not on the water and can't afford to raise, pay $31,000 or even half of that in insurance and certainly can't sell. FEMA is the one who put my in this situation.
I trusted them and their "expertise" prior to making an offer on my home....I say we all sue.
...

has anybody out there have any good things to say about fema govt.s help or is it like there steping on you to keep you down ! Hey if you flooded now that one thing but if you did not come on there s adifference fema govt doesnt see it one size fits all squeeze everybody with costs till they leave

Bayshore Bill,

You have been a patient man. Over 100 days of patience. I was fed up with FEMA a few weeks ago. And so have over 300 people who LIKE www.Facebook.com/StopFemaNow .

We are a grass roots organziation who are pushing our politiicians to get FEMA to get us the updated flood maps, lower the new flood insurance rates and be responsive to us.

...it sounds so simple on paper that's written here, but who will put the money up to fund the private flood insurance syndicates? Are you ready to invest! Those private insurance companies that write flood insurance are agents of FEMA. FEMA funds the insurance claims with borrowed money. FEMA has been in red ink since Katrina, and now with the additional Congressional appropriations of around $60B, that will add more to the debt...There were members of Congress who voted against it because for one: having to do with past FEMA claims not being funded in their locales for previous declared disasters...there still waiting. Kind of a "catch 22". . . thanks to Congress.