Homeowners without flood insurance left wondering how to pay for Ida's water damages

Some Nassau residents who do not have flood insurance but were impacted by the remnants of Ida are now wondering how they will pay for home repairs.

News 12 Staff

Sep 4, 2021, 12:47 AM

Updated 1,111 days ago

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Some Nassau residents who do not have flood insurance but were impacted by the remnants of Ida are now wondering how they will pay for home repairs.
They said Ida caused more damage to their homes than Superstorm Sandy as the flood waters swamped their homes with several feet of water and left costly messes behind.
In one Great Neck neighborhood, residents have spent the last two days throwing away just about everything they had on their first floors and inside their basements.
Many of their damaged belongings are still out on the curb waiting for garbage crews to pick them up.
For the impacted homeowners, the issue is that the area is not in a flood zone, which means most of them do not have flood insurance.
"It's basically my whole life. My whole first floor, It's all destroyed. Everything," said Bahareh Nazarian describing the living room of her home.
She lives outside of a flood zone, but Ida's torrential rain sent several feet of water rushing into her home.
"My kitchen has to be gutted, my living room, my dining room has to be gutted. We're talking about substantial damage," Nazarian said.
Jacob Nasiri's house was also badly damaged with several feet of water upstairs and much more in the basement.
"It was here, above my head, almost right here. I couldn't come downstairs," Nasiri said while pointing to the where the water reached.
Village Mayor Pedram Bral said major flooding -- which included a waterfall at the Great Neck Long Island Rail Road train station -- never happens in the community. As a result, most of the impacted residents do not have flood insurance.
"I've been here for 27 years, and I speak to my DPW. They've been here for 40 years and they haven't seen anything like this. This is unprecedented. It's worse than Sandy," Pedram Bral said.
However, Michael Barry with the Insurance information Institute said there's still some hope. President Biden's disaster declaration means homeowners could receive some relief money though it likely will not be enough to fully cover the kind of damage these homeowners sustained.
"The federal disaster declaration, as long as there is an individual assistance option, that's a good plan B. At least it can help some of these individuals recoup some of their loss," Barry explained.
Meantime, some other residents said they will leave their homes for now because they are uninhabitable and return until they are completely dry.