NEW YORK — New York will use part of its share of billions of dollars in federal Superstorm Sandy aid to "fully compensate" storm victims who had flood insurance claims denied because of a hard-to-understand rule barring payments for damage caused by earth movement during a flood, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday.
Details of the program still have to be released, but news of the state's aid offer was greeted with joy by homeowners like Stephen Parke and Michele Mittleman, whose house in Freeport, on one of the bays that line Long Island's Atlantic coast, was wrecked beyond repair by Sandy's storm surge.
The house took on four feet of oil-soaked water and had to be demolished after the storm, Mittleman said. But the family was paid only half of their $180,000 flood insurance policy after the Federal Emergency Management Agency ruled that damage to the foundation was the result of "the flood contributing to differential movement of supporting soils."
