When Hurricane Rita hit SE Texas, FEMA paid a certain per cent of each claim.
Many surveyors and engineers were sued for the remainder.
Is this happening with Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey? I have heard that
beach front flood insurance has gone up tens of thousands of dollars a year.
> When Hurricane Rita hit SE Texas, FEMA paid a certain per cent of each claim.
> Many surveyors and engineers were sued for the remainder.
>
> Is this happening with Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey? I have heard that
> beach front flood insurance has gone up tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Rates will be and are rising due to the Biggert-Waters Act and it is causing much anxiety along the Jersey Shore.
I have not heard of any claims against surveyors/engineers to date, but will make some inquiries and let you know.
What exactly were the Texas surveyors/engineers sued for particularly?
The rebuild effort in NJ is slapdash at best and is focused along the shore while many inland/upland victims are seeing little assistance very slowly.
Seems like I recall something similar happening in New Orleans after Katrina. Someone posted here that surveyors were being sued because they based their elevations on NGS benchmarks that were later proven to be wrong due to subsidence? Do I have this right?
The new law referenced above has done away with PreFIRM and Grandfathering, and some people, particularly people with PreFirm homes who sustained flood damages, are getting their rates boosted from a few hundred/yr to 10,000-20,000+/yr.
I recall hearing about inspectors examining the sheathing remaining on the Katrina destroyed homes. They found that many of the homes were constructed out of compliance with the Building Code in effect at the time of construction (too few nails, inadequate materials, all the standard developer corner cutting). That would be more important than the elevation certificate that states which BM they relied on...
Isn't there a NJ court case from 2010/2011 that found the engineer or surveyor liable for negligent practice based on a couple hundredth error? I recall it coming up in a discussion with a Director of Community Development in 2011.
Good luck in Texas. You survived the storm from Mother Nature, now you have the ship high in transit storm from the attorneys.
no
Robert, I found this:
>In United States v. St. Bernard Parish the court considered an appeal of decisions in two actions brought by the United States on behalf of FEMA and the Federal Insurance Administration against the Parishes of St. Bernard and Jefferson, the State of Louisiana, and various home builders, engineers, and surveyors. Extensive litigation revealed building permits issued for and construction of entire neighborhoods built in particularly flood prone areas.
http://nsglc.olemiss.edu/SGLPJ/Vol1No1/7Abbott.pdf
My understanding is that some surveyors were named in the law suit based on FEMA's claim that they were submitting elevation certificates in an area that had an unstable benchmark system.
I have not heard of anyone being sued.
Most of the rebuilding effort has seemed to have gone into getting the businesses and boardwalks along the shore back up and open before the summer season. Beach tourism is a good chunk of the NJ economy.
I know on Long Beach Island most of the damage was due to flooding from the storm surge from the bay. The dunes were only breached in a few areas allowing damage in from the ocean. At one of our friends house the flood waters from the bay were 2 feet above FEMA's base flood elevation. FEMA has since proposed raising the base flood elevation 3 feet in her area.
TPR..
If you would have looked at the footnote cite for that lawsuit, you would have seen that it was from a 1985 case.
21 years before Katrina.
St. Bernard was one of the first to set deep set benchmarks.
Professor Cliff M who posts here was very involved in this along with the other local Parish who sued and were countersued by the Fed Government.
That is all water under the bridge, so to speak.
Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish were sued by the Federal Justice Department in the middle 1980's along with all Licensed Land Surveyors that stamped Flood Elevation Certificates based on elevations derived from OTHER THAN currently published NGS Benchmarks. It was $96 million for Jefferson Parish and $46 million for St. Bernard Parish.
In the Federal Consent Agreement for settlement, I was asked to write the specifications and then supervise the work for Second-Order, Class II Benchmark Densification Surveys paid for entirely by the Parishes. All work was Blue Booked and accepted by NGS.
Local Land Surveyors wound up only having to pay their legal representation which I understand was non-trivial.
But they were indeed sued as co-defendants by the Feds.
