Stop FEMA Now: Movement builds against rules [Asbury Park Press, N.J.]

May 07--TOMS RIVER -- The man behind a fast-growing grass-roots movement against federal bureaucracy that surfaced after superstorm Sandy was once just a man with questions.

Stop FEMA Now founder George Kasimos said he was perplexed by post-storm federal regulations that called for homeowners near the water to elevate their houses or pay flood insurance premiums that could top $31,000 a year.

He started a Facebook page, he said, simply to find answers. Weeks later, it turned into a crusade.

Whether they had several feet of flooding or none, homeowners have been been left with costly decisions -- raise, pay exorbitant flood insurance premiums or walk away. They are strapped by new regulations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Congress but have few answers or help, Kasimos said. That is why this Toms River father of four, who never saw a reason to head to the polls, is leading the fight against FEMA.

"At this point, it's about saving our neighborhoods," Kasimos said. "It's not about me anymore."

Since Jan. 14, Kasimos has accumulated 4,000 supporters on his Stop FEMA Now Facebook page and about 3,500 signatures on an online petition to overturn the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, the federal legislation behind his biggest headaches.

Kasimos, 46, wants FEMA to provide more realistic base flood elevation maps, which dictate how high a home should be and what the new insurance rates will be. The maps are still in draft form, and Gov. Chris Christie last week said they will change to take more homes out of costly, high-risk zones. At the latest Stop FEMA Now event in Ortley Beach, a section of Toms River devastated by Sandy, Kasimos called for the government to focus on raising dunes instead of homes.

After Sandy poured two feet of water into his lagoonfront home in the Snug Harbor section of Toms River, Kasimos, like many, started to rebuild.

He received a flood insurance settlement and FEMA funding for housing, he said. He would not specify how much insurance paid, other than to say it was not enough.

Under the proposed new flood zones, his annual insurance premium could spike from $1,000 to $15,000 per year, he said. Raising his home, which as of now sits in a designated high-risk "V zone," would cost $150,000, Kasimos said. The home was purchased in 2009 for $566,700, according to land records. Since the flood, the assessed value of the house alone has been cut to $21,000.

Kasimos never knew about the proposed base flood elevation maps and insurance premium hikes until a neighbor told him in January.

That is when everything changed for Kasimos.

Before Stop FEMA Now, Kasimos had never been an advocate or in the public spotlight. He never went to council meetings or met his mayor. He considers himself a Republican, but is not registered to vote, public records show.

In 1987 Kasimos was convicted on a drug distribution charge in Passaic County, according to court records. His sentence, though, was unclear in the record. Kasimos dubbed the conviction part of his personal history, from which he has grown and improved himself.

"I was 19 years old or so when I made a mistake, and I rectified that mistake," he said. "Now if FEMA would rectify their mistakes in less than 25 years, we would appreciate that."

Kasimos also wants to change the Biggert-Waters Act, a recent law that hiked flood insurance premiums by 25 percent for the next four years, and help make sure that any government funding gets to homeowners, including those who own second homes at the Shore, so they can pay for the changes called for in the new maps.

Six months ago he had just opened his own real estate office, George Kasimos Real Estate LLC in Newark, and was "living my isolated life, trying to make a living for my family."

His future now includes trips to the polls and a fight with Washington. He will not run for a political office, but he aims to lead his group in applying voting pressure on federal legislators to amend Biggert-Waters.

Senators cited

At his rally Saturday in Ortley Beach, Kasimos told the audience it was time to start calling out some elected officials and added that New Jersey's U.S. senators, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, both Democrats, voted in favor of Biggert-Waters.

"Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez, you need to come back to the Jersey Shore. You voted for it," Kasimos told the crowd. "Maybe you didn't know the ramifications, but you do now. Let's discuss it. Let's rectify it."

Both senators were among those casting the 72 yes votes on June 29 for an act authorizing funds for federal highways that included the flood insurance reform, according to voting records.

On March 15, Menendez, Lautenberg and two other senators sent a letter to the FEMA administrator asking that the insurance hike be delayed.

Responding to Kasimos' call, Menendez's spokesman Paul Brubaker said the senator is always ready to work with anyone to move forward after Sandy.

"We showed the value of bipartisanship after superstorm Sandy struck while we were taking the first steps in our recovery," Brubaker said. "If Republicans in Congress are willing to relent in the political agenda that forced the flood insurance premium increases in the Biggert-Waters Act, we can continue that bipartisanship for the benefit of Jersey Shore homeowners who are continuing their recovery from the storm."

A representative from Lautenberg's office could not be reached for comment.

<org>FEMA gave $388M

FEMA officials, in a recent report released on the six-month anniversary of the storm, outlined how they have helped storm victims and continue to support them.

Since Sandy, FEMA has approved $388 million in assistance to more than 60,500 individuals and households, mostly for home repairs and rental assistance, FEMA reported. Its 41 Disaster Recovery Centers tallied more than 89,000 visits. Teams also visited affected neighborhoods to offer assistance in nine languages.

FEMA spokesman Christopher Mckniff said the next step for the agency includes the summer release of preliminary flood zone maps. The maps will provide a better picture of the elevation standards than the current advisory maps. Once the new maps are released, FEMA will begin a 12-to-18-month process to allow the public to comment on the maps, he said.

"This will allow individuals, municipalities and organizations, such as Stop FEMA Now, to appeal these maps," he said.

Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove, R-Ocean, is one of several politicians supporting Stop FEMA Now's cause.

Gove, who has not lived in her Long Beach Township home in six months because of a foot of water on her first floor, attended a Stop FEMA Now meeting in Berkeley to urge the members not to quit.

"Power is in numbers, so it's important to keep fighting," she said at the meeting. "We cannot let our federal government stomp all over us."

Spreading the word

Kasimos tries to rally support through his meetings by asking the audience to spread the word. "Like" the group on Facebook, tell a neighbor about what it is trying to do and write to legislators, he encourages.

Rallying the group behind an issue that many can relate to and getting that group in the spotlight often are some of the best things Kasimos can do to have a chance at reaching his goals, said Frank Jack Fiamingo, a fellow Ocean County resident who started his own grass-roots group in 2010.

Fiamingo started the New Jersey Second Amendment Society with 10 people sitting around a table in Toms River. Now the Beach Haven West resident leads a group with "multiple thousands in supporters."

To succeed, Kasimos must expand. And to expand, he must hold his own regular meetings and take every opportunity to speak, whether through a media interview or an invitation to address other organizations' meetings, Fiamingo said. It also takes a good team, he said.

Fiamingo advised Kasimos to find attorneys who agree with his mission to help look for laws that can give the group power to fight.

"You can't cut off the head of the snake with nail clippers, but you can chip at the scales," Fiamingo said. "Find the issue people can relate to and are willing to give time and money for."

Kasimos feels his supporters are spreading the word and is pleased with its growth so far.

His first meetings consisted of fairly small groups of homeowners coming together in yogurt or sub shops. His latest meetings have pulled more than 100 people, and every time, Kasimos said, he sees new faces.

He only held information meetings, in spots across Ocean and Atlantic counties, until Saturday, when he gathered a crowd in the heavily devastated Ortley Beach for the first Stop FEMA Now rally, which he hopes helps continue to spread the word.

Kasimos wants to keep his group active and plans to next take his meetings to New York.

"This is a national issue," Kasimos said. "Initially we thought these rules were just because we had flooding, but all of FEMA's regulations and the rate insurance increases are going by the Biggert-Waters Act, and that's a national issue."

In a way, word is getting out.

In April, Kathy Serra of Lavallette started a petition to repeal Biggert-Waters and correct elevation maps on WhiteHouse.gov. With fewer than 2,000 signatures, it fell well below the goal of 100,000 by the May 4 deadline, but was able to show Serra that it had supporters in 45 states.

Though the site helps people only to raise awareness and garner support rather than to enact change, a different petition with the same goals and more than 3,600 signatures lives on causes.com.

"So many people are affected by this, I mean so many people," said Serra, 60. "Everybody is looking for a way to get their voices heard."

Kristi Funderburk: 732-557-5748; [email protected]

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