Middletown floodplain manager urges continued outreach as insurance counts fall and severe repetitive losses rise

Stacy Krauss, the township's certified floodplain manager, gave the committee an annual update on flood hazards and flood insurance, saying Middletown’s participation in FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS) provides residents with discounts on flood insurance and supports eligibility for mitigation grants.

Krauss said the CRS yields a 15% discount for residents in the Special Flood Hazard Area and 5% for others and stressed that maintaining participation keeps both discounts and grant eligibility in place. “This is part of our annual update to you guys and the public on our public program for public information, specifically on flood hazards and flood insurance,” Krauss said.

The presentation noted a net decline in policies in force in town. Krauss said there has been a drop from earlier counts and that the most recent figure is 1,918 policies in force; she attributed the decline to changes in flood maps, homeowners paying off mortgages (removing mandatory-purchase requirements), and some policyholders moving to private insurers. Krauss warned that while repetitive-loss properties decreased numerically, the town has seen an increase in severe repetitive-loss properties after large payouts, and she said that indicates remaining high-risk locations requiring targeted mitigation.

Krauss described outreach work with local real-estate agents, engineers, surveyors, seniors and homeowners, and said the township works with neighboring jurisdictions and Risk Reduction Plus to distribute information. She announced a flood insurance open house at town hall on Oct. 2 and said the township has uploaded about 700 elevation certificates to a shared 4ERunner platform and recently added USGS ground-elevation data (currently displayed in meters). “We create specific outreach for seniors who may need help with shelter in place or evacuation,” Krauss said, and described regular efforts at community events and targeted mailings to repetitive-loss households ahead of hurricane season.

Committee members asked for data confirmation; Krauss reiterated the lower policy count and the town’s priority to identify properties that have shifted into the severe repetitive-loss category so officials can pursue property-specific mitigation offers. She said future work will focus on mapping where those severe repetitive-loss homes are located and tailoring mitigation outreach accordingly.

Next steps: Krauss plans to continue outreach to real-estate professionals, to refine mapping of severe repetitive-loss properties for targeted mitigation offers, and to host the Oct. 2 open house to walk residents through rating and mitigation options.