Still ‘stranded and struggling,’ Ida survivors plead for aid

Still ‘stranded and struggling,’ Ida survivors plead for aid / NJ Spotlight / September 30, 2024

By Brenda Flanagan

“My heart breaks — again and again,” said Milford’s Leanna Jones, who joined a group of Hurricane Ida survivors in Trenton on Monday to once again ask lawmakers for help.

The Legislature passed a measure in June that would have added protections for property owners who still could not return to their homes after three years, but Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed the bill this summer.

Now, Jones said she relived her own trauma this weekend, watching people in North Carolina flee Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic floods. Jones and others said they know what grueling recovery lies ahead, both financially and emotionally.

“Cause you’ve lived it, and you feel like you’re living it, again — with people you don’t even know,” said Debby Josephs, an Ida survivor from Manville’s Lost Valley neighborhood.

“They don’t know what’s coming,” Jones said of those hit by Helene. “And I just hope that there is more support there, than we have seen as Hurricane Ida survivors in New Jersey.”

The small group from towns devastated by Ida on Monday spoke before the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, backing a newly-revised bill that would allow them to put their mortgage payments on hold for a year.

“I have dental bills, I have medical bills — I have all kinds of other bills — on top of learning how to budget recovering from a flood,” Michelle Belding, another Milford survivor, told the panel.

“My kids are still worried about whether we’re going to die, whether our home will be ruined again, every time it rains,” Jones said. “I urge you to pass this bill, to ease our financial burdens so we can focus on our emotional recovery.”

In his conditional veto, the governor wanted applicants to meet stricter rules to be eligible — requirements so stringent, advocates claimed few if any homeowners would even qualify. Particularly for those living in Manville’s Lost Valley, they have no viable options left anymore besides a public buyout.

“It’s like Groundhog Day here, that I keep having to do this bill,” said state Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), the chief sponsor.

He said revisions include the state’s Department of Community Affairs vetting applications through a new online portal, as Murphy proposed. But Singleton stopped short of restricting claims only to those who participated in just two specific aid programs. Instead, his version opens eligibility to homeowners who received federal disaster assistance for needs related to Ida damage in their primary residence.

Singleton said he was working with the governor’s office to make sure the next version will be signed.

“Surprises are not things I’m a big fan of, and we’re hopeful that because of these conversations that happened in earnest… that there’s sufficient light at the end of the tunnel for us to move forward,” Singleton noted.

Lawmakers on the Senate panel — Democrats and Republicans — unanimously supported the previous bill. Singleton said there will be some changes to the bill as it moves forward, but nothing to the most material issues or intentions, which he said is to make sure that all people get the relief that they need.