Greenburgh officials, residents eager to receive FEMA aid to help flood-impacted communities
Babbitt Court, a neighborhood known to experience flooding, saw some ponding during Saturday's torrential downpours. In fact, residents who live in the neighborhood said their street is pretty much impacted every time there is a major storm.
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Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said an Elmsford community that experiences constant flooding is eager for a FEMA grant to help impacted homeowners.
Babbitt Court, a neighborhood known to experience flooding, saw some ponding during Saturday's torrential downpours. In fact, residents who live in the neighborhood said their street is pretty much impacted every time there is a major storm.
After the remnants of Hurricane Ida impacted the Hudson Valley, Feiner said the town applied for a FEMA grant to raise six homes on Babbitt Court to help protect them from severe flooding.
He said six homes were already raised from a similar grant Elmsford received in 2002 and now six more homeowners want to do the same. Feiner, however, added that he and this latest group of homeowners are now frustrated by delays in the process.
Feiner explained that the town applied for the grant in May 2022 and that FEMA would notify the town whether they would get it or not by spring 2023.
Feiner said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office emailed him a few weeks ago to explain that there are a lot of federal regulations that are delaying the process but that her office is trying to speed up the process.
Feiner said several impacted homeowners have not been able to live in their homes since the remnants of Ida hit. He said several people have been paying both rent for temporary housing and their mortgages and taxes for their homes on the street.
He stressed that the town is really trying to push FEMA to act faster, because even if they do end up getting the grant, the design and construction that is required to actually raise the homes is a multi-year process.
