New fed report: These NJ cities at ‘serious risk’ for devastating flooding

🔷NJ cities make tristate top 20 for flood risk

🔷Report says over 1 million NJ residents house flooding ‘serious risk’

🔷One NJ borough, 90% of homes at serious flood risk

More than a million New Jersey residents are at serious risk of having their homes flooded, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“Flood Risk and The Tristate Housing Market” finds one in ten properties in NJ, NY and Connecticut are currently at high risk of flooding.

The analysis found that flood risk is not limited to coastal communities, as inland communities like Newark face substantial risk from heavy rainfall, flash flooding, and overflowing rivers.

Flooding is costly, involving direct costs like property damage and damaged infrastructure and indirect costs like falling property values, rising insurance premiums, and displacement risk.

In New Jersey, the report found 329,234 properties considered at-risk and 507,158 households at risk for folding.

When the report turned to place-based analysis, there were four New Jersey communities that ranked within the New York region's top 20 for household flooding risk.

RELATED: High tides, big problems: NJ ranks #1 for coastal flooding threat

The flood risk report took special note of Keansburg and Hoboken as case studies, where repeated flood-prone properties have suffered significant damages in recent years.

About 98% of the land in Keansburg is within a flood hazard zone — and almost all the properties in the borough fall within a 100-year floodplain. The borough's population of 9,648 lives in 3,853 households.

Of those, the number of Keansburg households at risk for flooding was 3,398 — nearly all of them.

Hoboken's high risk involves both coastal and inland flooding. With a population of more than 57,000 people in just 1.25 square miles, around 94% of Hoboken’s densely developed urban surface is unable to absorb water.

The worst historic flooding in New Jersey has been due to either a hurricane or tropical storm — while major river floods have also wreaked havoc, as summarized by NewJerseyFloodInsurance.org.

Superstorm Sandy in 2012 has endured as one of the most expensive national disasters that struck most of the state — while recent flash flood events during the remnants of Ida in 2021 and Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 have also been harrowing and costly.

Read More: Do you know your flood risk? FEMA urges NJ residents to act now

Homes in high-risk flood areas with government-backed mortgages are required to have flood insurance.

As many residents have found out too later after a catastrophic event, a homeowner's or renter's policy typically would not cover damage caused by flooding.

The report's findings include the need for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to adopt new and improved financing resiliency measures, as the number of communities considered at risk has continued to grow.

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