{"id":1490,"date":"2024-03-06T14:14:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/?p=1490"},"modified":"2024-03-06T14:14:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:14:09","slug":"blue-acres-individual-consultations-february-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/blue-acres-individual-consultations-february-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Acres Individual Consultations: February Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 6, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

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December 2023 rainfall totals across New Jersey in inches (from 5\u2033 in dark red to 10.99\u2033 in dark green). Image courtesy of the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The final month of 2023 proved to be the wettest December in NJ<\/a> since records started in 1895, with a statewide average rainfall of 8.2\u201d. Followed immediately by the wettest January in a quarter of a century<\/a>, the multiple flood events this winter caused wrought havoc, causing widespread power outages<\/a> and leaving roads impassable<\/a>. As a result of these flood events, Blue Acres received more than ninety new applications for voluntary buyouts.<\/p>\n

To better gauge program interest and answer homeowners\u2019 questions, Blue Acres staff hosted a series of private consultation sessions in February. The three sessions, held February 1st<\/sup>, 8th<\/sup>, and 15th<\/sup>, gave homeowners who were particularly hard-hit by the December-January floods the chance to speak one-on-one with Blue Acres representatives. Outreach materials were sent out in English and Spanish with the aid of multiple municipal governments, and a language interpreter was available at each event.<\/p>\n

At the first session, held at the Borough of Pompton Lakes Municipal Building on February 1, Blue Acres staff held 18 individual consultations. On February 8 at the Lodi Memorial Library, staff spoke with another 16 property owners individually. A further 19 one-on-one discussions occurred at the online session on February 15. Of the 53 consultations held last month, 22 homeowners opted to apply for a buyout during or immediately following their consultation, accounting for nearly a quarter of Blue Acres applications since mid-December 2023.<\/p>\n

Blue Acres remains committed to meeting flood-impacted homeowners where they are and providing personalized attention through one-on-one conversations. Homeowners are always welcome to reach out to the Blue Acres program directly for assistance and information, and they do not need to wait for a consultation event to be scheduled. For more information, contact us at blueacres@deptest.nj.gov<\/a> or (609) 940-4140.<\/p>\n

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Blue Acres staff answering homeowner questions at Pompton Lakes on February 1, 2024. Image courtesy of News 12 New Jersey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 6, 2024 The final month of 2023 proved to be the wettest December in NJ since records started in 1895, with a statewide average rainfall of 8.2\u201d. Followed immediately by the wettest January in a quarter of a century, the multiple flood events this winter caused wrought havoc, causing widespread power outages and leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3432,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions\/3432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/blueacres\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}