Flood Insurance Extended

The National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized insurance to property owners in high risk flood zones, was to have expired on Sept. 30 - but won't. Congress passed a one-year extension for it last week, to Sept. 30, 1998, and President Clinton is expected to sign it.

The Senate has passed a five-year extension, but the House has yet to act on that.

Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, sponsored the legislation.

Of the 85,000 New York State policyholders covered by the national flood insurance, Suffolk County has the most with 22,685. Of those, 1,576 are in East Hampton Town, 164 of those in East Hampton Village. Southampton Town policy holders number 2,695, Southampton Village, 322.

The flood insurance program, to which 3.5 million policy holders nationally pay $1.3 billion a year in premiums, is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.