Not all in N.E. eligible for flood relief

For the five decades that Robert Castricone has called Haigh Avenue in Salem, New Hampshire home, he never once thought about purchasing flood insurance, despite the fact that his home sits on the edge of the Spicket River.

“I never had a drop of water in the house,” he said.

However, after 49 years of dodging the high waters that come every few years, the 78-year-old’s luck ran out last week when the Spicket River flowed into his basement, filling it with more than 3 feet of water.

The flood waters ransacked the family room, making it completely uninhabitable, Castricone said.

Since the flood, Castricone has been forced to gut the basement completely. The weekend after the rains stopped, he took out three truckloads of waterlogged wood and metal baseboard. In addition, he has been forced to replace the electrical wiring, as well as the wood paneling. He also had to hire someone to clean his water boiler and washing machine the dryer couldn’t be salvaged as well as have the room sprayed to prevent mold.

Cost to recover
All in all, Castricone said, recovering from the flood will cost him $5,000, all of which he will pay for out of his military and Social Security pensions.

“I’m paying for it myself, and hoping that FEMA will give me a hand,” he said.

Fortunately for Castricone, the state was granted a disaster declaration for homeowners in several counties. It’s a move that will bring some financial relief to Castricone as he looks to recoup from the historic floods. He will be eligible for an immediate $5,400 grant from FEMA to help make his home habitable again, according to Kevin Merli, the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Division service director for FEMA’s Boston office.

However, for people in about 35 communities in New Hampshire, there will likely be no financial relief from the federal agency because their towns do not participate in the National Flood Program.

The National Flood Program gives homeowners the ability to purchase flood insurance. In exchange, the communities must create a series of flood plain ordinances and management agreements to reduce the number of new developments within flood plains. The agency developed the program in the late 1960s after private insurers deemed that providing private flood insurance would be cost prohibitive.

Under federal guidelines, people who own homes in designated flood plains are required by lenders to purchase flood insurance when they buy a home. Flood damage and damage from ground water are not covered under standard homeowners insurance policies.

Despite the guidelines, and the risk, most people in the Granite State do not have flood insurance, according to Kathleen Belanger, director of consumer services for the New Hampshire Insurance Department. She said fewer than 7,000 people in New Hampshire carry policies.

Belanger said her office has been inundated with calls for the past week from people all over the state trying to clear up questions about what is covered on their existing insurance policies.

“We’ve been kind of trying to act as an information clearinghouse, just helping people find information and get the right resources,'” she said.

In Rockingham County, 3,131 people have federal flood insurance, with more than half of those who are covered living in Hampton and other Seacoast towns. In Salem, where town officials have stated that more than 800 homes are in the flood plain, only 331 homes are covered by flood insurance.

Yet even those without flood insurance will be eligible for federal funding to help them rebuild, as long as their towns participate in the federal flood program. Others will not be so lucky. “They will not get the $5,400 to repair their home if their community does not participate,” Merli said.

Merli explained that people living in towns that do not participate in the federal program also will be shut out from disaster loans backed by the Small Business Administration and other types of low-interest loans.

However, Merli said there are exceptions. For instance, someone living in a town that did not participate in the flood program could still be granted some aid, provided they do not live in a flood plain. He also said that there are FEMA programs that all people automatically qualified for, like temporary housing shelters.

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