Yesterday’s edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel featured a column by Donna DiMaggio Berger, the executive director of the Community Advocacy Network and a partner in the Katzman, Garfinkel and Berger law firm.

In what Ms. Berger calls an "unprecedented move,"  The Federal Emergency Management Agency  recently announced that it would end a six year old program that allowed agents writing national flood insurance policies to rebate a portion of their commission to their customers.

Ms. Berger notes that these rebates have been allowed by statute in Florida since 1996 and correctly questions why, in the midst of difficult economic times, FEMA has chosen to "effectively take millions of dollars in flood-insurance savings" out of the pockets of Florida homeowners and the communities in which they reside.

According to Ms. Berger, over two million flood insurance policies are written in Florida.  Most of those policies cover homes in flood prone areas such as our coastline and the counties south of Lake Okeechobee, where more than eight million of us live.

The column includes a link to a petition urging FEMA to reconsider and reverse its decision before October 1 of this year, which is the date that the rebate program is scheduled to end.

With our hurricane season just beginning to brew, I’d suggest that NOW would be a very good time to sign this petition.

Please forward this entry and the link to the petition to your neighbors and other homeowners in your communities.