Transcript

Christoph Lohr: Welcome back to The Authority Podcast: Plumbing and Mechanical. On this episode, we're going to talk about do specific building codes hurt or help FEMA reimbursement. On this episode, we're going to discuss Bridgewater, New Jersey, situated on a floodplain of the Raritan River has experienced devastating floods for decades from Hurricane Dora in 1971 to Hurricane Ida 50 years later. According to riskfactor.com 70 percent of all properties in the municipality have greater than a 25 percent Chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years. Steven Rodzinak, director of code enforcement for the borough of Bound Brook, New Jersey, talks to us about the intersection of building codes and the impact on Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA funding to answer the question: Do specific building codes hurt or help FEMA reimbursement?

Steve, welcome to the authority podcast. We're glad to have you. Nice to be here. So in our first question, you were at the time in Bridgewater. Now you're with Bound Brook, but both Bound Brook and Bridgewater has experienced terrible flooding over the years.

And all of us at IAPMO extend our sincere concern to you and your constituents. Tell us about your situation and how in that area, you all have kind of worked to build resiliency. Well, the, the, the first part of that is, to deal with your deal with FEMA, you're dealing with the floodplain administrator for your municipality and floodplain manager to make sure that you have the latest FEMA flood maps available.

Steven Rodzinak: So that any new construction that's going on meets the minimum flood elevation requirements, plus the one foot of free board, basically one foot above whatever the flood elevation is. That's the first part and you adopt the flood mitigation measures that the state recommends. You obviously, also on the municipal municipal level, you adopt ordinances, that preclude you from building any type of construction in floodways or other areas that are notoriously known to flood. The second part of that is and it's really good in the state of New Jersey, is we have adopted state codes.

They're not municipal codes, they're not adopted by town to town, it's a state code, we have the ICC codes and the National Standard Plumbing Code in New Jersey, and those address, and, and I joke about this when I teach classes, is that our codes are a history book of everything that's ever gone wrong.

So you have a flood now, everybody says, Hey, we have an issue here. We need to address it. And they address it through the clothes, you know, by creating, basically, if you, if you are in a known flood area, elevation, structural, restructuring the foundation of your house to withstand the hydraulic pressure of the water, as it enters, flood waste in your house that will let water.

Push opening and we'll go through instead of putting all that pressure on the outside foundation wall. The codes are very important. FEMA looks at the codes. There was a comment that, that it has to be a nationally recognized code. Yes. but any code that's adopted in your state that is recognized by your state is something that FEMA is looking for.

Okay. Especially when it comes time to apply for, you know, federal and state aid. That's really the key because quite honestly, dealing with FEMA is not the easiest thing to do. Yeah. Well, let's, let's, well, I think I definitely want to touch on that here in a minute, but let me ask the first quick question just kind of based on what you were saying.

Christoph Lohr: When once you got past the acute crisis of flooding in your area and I needed to start rebuilding. Was there any kind of compliance with plumbing and mechanical codes specifically, let's say that played an important role in securing FEMA reimbursement for disaster related damages, or was that not as much other than the national recognized?

Steven Rodzinak: Not as much, but what happens with FEMA is that and in flood insurance, the NFIP, all those agencies that regulate the flood insurance. once you start to rebuild and you have been in a flood area, they want all your mechanicals and utilities. Relocated above the above the flood elevation to protect them.

That's really the key. I actually have firsthand experience with FEMA. I lived in Manville and I lived through two floods in Manville, I no longer live there. First, first one, obviously it was just the flooding of the, of the first floor. The second one, I lost the foundation of my house and then I had to apply to FEMA to see if I could get any type of aid to help rebuild.

Christoph Lohr: So when you, when you apply to FEMA, what type of documentation to FEMA require, and I guess for the municipality too, is there any kind of engineered analysis that's needed when applying to FEMA? So one of the things that they look for is a flood elevation study for your property. The bigger part of that is FEMA is looking for, especially when it comes to home elevation, because there is a grant for that.

Steven Rodzinak: They're looking for documentation from the municipality of substantially and repetitively damaged structures due to flooding. That's a, that's a big key for being able to obtain any.

So in Bridgewater and Bound Brook, it's happened here also. I was out with FEMA for three weeks straight going to houses and they were dropping off applications to the impacted residents.  the application is an application for FEMA. And then there was an appeal application because in Irene, it was a tropical storm, FEMA doesn't cover tropical storms.

So they were going to get denied, but then they have to appeal. So it, you see, it's a complicated process. Sometimes that's really helpful. And with it being a complicated process, then can you shed a little bit of light on timelines? In other words, from, from the time you submitted to FEMA, how long did it take to actually receive funds from FEMA, for, in these cases?

Sometimes months. And that's the, probably the shortest was, the shortest time period I heard is months. I've heard people that have gone almost as much as a year. To get any type of federal funding. For me, when I applied, I was denied because I can obtain money through a private lending institution because I have the financial capability of doing that.

So the FEMA money is really for the people who don't have the financial wherewithal to be able to go other avenues is what we've experienced at least. I'm part of the LEPC, Local Emergency Planning Committee. So, The flood happens, we go out and we start looking at all the houses and evaluate. As a construction official, I'm determining whether a house is unsafe.

We post them if, if required. We also work with the Red Cross and other agencies to find alternate locations for these people temporarily until they can get ahold of their insurance companies or, the FEMA comes in and, offers money and locations for them to, relocate temporarily, at least.

They are good at that. They, FEMA , set up a command center in one of the other municipalities that wasn't affected for everyone to go to start their application process. It was done right away. It's after you file the application process, things tend to slow down. You know, it is unfortunately it's the federal government and, and things do not run quickly, but they are there and they do show up.

And all the other outside agencies show up. the, the big key for rebuilding is really new, modern building codes that address these issues. You know, you look at foundation walls, you're building in an area that's prone to flooding, and you're allowed to rebuild your home. You want to make sure that, that you follow the codes because now you have a rebar that's required every so many feet in the wall.

For unstable backfill is what they call it. But in this case, you're trying to protect against hydraulic pressure, collapsing the wall. So, the building codes address a lot of that it addresses it.  It gives you a robust foundation, something that's going to be more stable, more structurally sound and hopefully prevent the major catastrophic events like I did with a failed foundation wall.

Christoph Lohr: That makes sense. So, so really a lot of this is it seems like there's a system in place. I mean, it's not the fastest moving. Anytime you have a large organization, things move slow. Obviously, the government and it's very large organization in that sense. But, you know, other than slow moving, I mean, has there, you know, was, Bound Brook or Bridgewater any of the other ones that you've been at?

Do you know, have any of the municipalities been denied funding by FEMA?

Steven Rodzinak: Well there's two different issues that, that, that are on it. You're talking about residential applicants and you're talking about the municipality seeking funding to help build and make their infrastructure more robust. Okay. And, so I already touched base on that. It is a complicated process for, for homeowners.

Let's be realistic. It's no different than code enforcement. The first time somebody gets a permit for a water heater is the first time they've ever had experience. Okay. They just had a flood, everything, they're emotional, things are bad, they're going, the people there take, I will say this, the people that were processing the applications took the time to, to, and they realized that these people are emotional and they just lost all their personal belongings and they took the time to explain the process to them thoroughly so they understood it so they weren't frustrated before they left.

The municipalities, they tend to get faster action. Then, then the residential, it's not as complicated a process for them. It is still a process. You know, but in most cases, the municipality is not really looking for money. They're looking for help for the residents is what they're really trying to do.

Because what's their first job. What's the first job of the municipal government is to protect the residents. And, and that's, that's where they're, they're. Their focus is, is to try to get help as much as possible, call senators, assemblymen, you know, anything it takes to get the right people there. During manholes, floods, Bridgewater, even Bound Brook.

The national guard was sent out right away, making sure that there wasn't looting or anything else going on. you know, so, so the federal government does respond. It's, it's on the back end where it starts to slow down a little bit. Yeah. And really what I'm hearing from you is, you know, the considerations are not so much building codes.

Christoph Lohr: Again, you kind of mentioned at the start, it's. It's mostly the, you know, it's a recognized building code of some kind, you know, plumbing, mechanical, building, fire, whatever, electrical. it's more about, are you located in a flood plain? That's where the perhaps some of the challenges, can come in.

Steven Rodzinak: And that's something that's obviously outside of, outside of building code enforcement per se. A lot of that gets addressed with municipal ordinances.  I was in Bridgewater. I was the floodplain administrator and manager for a period of time. That's a job really for engineers and floodplain guys.

They talk a different language than construction guys. So it's a little bit more complicated for, for a layman like myself. Understands everything. What you know is the above the flood elevation. You would not expect, right? Yeah. You think somebody's talking about a skateboarder or something, but it, it's actually dictating how high above that, that flood elevation you have to build.

Again, but the building codes a address. The issues that arise from high water. if you're in that area in, I know in Manville, they actually built some houses in the flood area not too far from where I used to live, but they had to raise the first floor living area above that flood elevation.

That's, that's determined by FEMA. In Bound Brook, we have a levee system that was installed to alleviate some of the flooding here in town. It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was actually given over to the DEP for maintenance and repair. So it lowered the flood elevation in this area.

I believe it's 29 feet in this area right now. It was 39. Which would have made any type of development impossible to do. Cause you need an evacuation route and at 39, you wouldn't have that evacuation route.

Christoph Lohr: Second to last question, has your experience in Bound Brook changed the way that you think about new homes and buildings, how they're built and renovated?

Steven Rodzinak: That's actually a pretty good question. The codes really have addressed. A lot of these issues so I think more about the location of the houses, then I do about the construction because the construction is addressed in the codes. You know, we adopt codes every 3 years here. It's a code, a 3 year code adoption cycle in New Jersey.

We've just adopted the 21 codes, so we're going to the 24s. In 25, I believe should be the next cycle. Yeah. I'm just trying to remember the dates. It's tough because there's so many different dates out there. and, and they're having code hearings specifically about a lot of the issues that, that you're talking about with the flooding and, and, and other storm damage in Sandy, in Bridgewater was tree strikes.

Lost 60 some houses in Bridgewater from tree strikes. They crushed them. It wasn't a flooding issue, even though there was flooding. The bigger issue was trees. You can't really address that. The idea is the structural bones of the home are being addressed. They're being made more robust so that these types of things are better protected than, than they were.

Christoph Lohr: Excellent. And my last question, Steve, for you, if you were going to summarize your talk in one word. One word only. What would be the word you would choose to summarize this conversation?

Steven Rodzinak: Hopeful. Okay. And why would you pick that? What, what, what makes you pick the word hopeful? Because I'm looking at the codes and the ordinances that are being adopted and hope it eliminates other people from going through the problems that the people in the past have gone through. Excellent. Steve, really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule.

Christoph Lohr: I learned a lot from you here today and just want to say on behalf of my admin, the authority podcast, thank you so much for being a guest. Not a problem, sir. You have a great day. Thank you. You too. Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of the Authority Podcast, Plumbing and Mechanical. Love this episode of the podcast?

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