Some New Jersey flood victims looking to be bought out by government

Some New Jersey flood victims looking to be bought out by government / CBS NY / February 8, 2024

By Christine Sloane

LODI, N.J. — opens in a new windowFlooding across New Jersey in recent months has many residents in those areas saying they’ve had enough.

Thursday afternoon, some flood victims met with New Jersey’s Blue Acres, a government buy-out program.

This is the second Blue Acres meeting this month at the library in Lodi, a borough that’s seen its share of flooding. The one-on-one meetings are closed to the media and flood victims from across the state can attend.

Some tell us while the program is voluntary, the buy-out offers are low and confusing.

“We had the sewage coming up through this pipe, which was insane,” Manville homeowner Brianna Lohr said.

She says opens in a new windowthe floods in January sent sewage into her finished basement and chills down her spine.

Lohr and her boyfriend want out of the Manville home they bought after Hurricane Ida, they say not knowing they were bringing their beloved dogs into a flood zone.

“Do you want to be bought out?” CBS New York’s Christine Sloan asked.

“Yes, definitely, just a peace of mind,” Lohr said.

Lohr has begun the buy-out process and says even though she’s being offered what she and her boyfriend paid at the time of flood, she doesn’t care.

“Sign me up. I will sign the line. If we could get out today, we absolutely would,” she said.

Other residents in flood-ravaged neighborhoods say they want the full market value of their homes.

“They are saying that it is market value at the time of the incident, which is not fair,” Milford resident Leana Jones said.

Jones’ life was turned upside down after Hurricane Ida damaged her Milford home and sent water into the basement.

She says she can’t get more funding to raise her home like others and her credit’s shot after making repairs.

She attended the last Blue Acres meeting.

“I cannot afford to move somewhere else, and I don’t want to move somewhere else, but they are saying this is your best option,” Jones said.

Shawn M. Latourette, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, oversees the federally funded Blue Acres program. He says the rules are mandated by Congress.

“That is tied to fair market value at the time of the event, and it is one of those issues of bureaucracy that is a bit ignorant of or not attuned to the realities, the facts on the ground,” he said.

The commissioner says buy-outs can take time and to ease the process, the state is trying to provide more funding so those homeowners can get a bit more money.

The last of these three meeting will be held virtually on Feb. 15.