~62%
of the CDP in FEMA's high-risk flood zone
Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, Atlas overlay (Nov 2026)18%
of homes built before 1940
Source: Census ACS 2024 5-yr, B25034~5 ft
Sandy surge up Motts Creek
Source: Five Towns NY Rising Community Reconstruction Plan4.2–58.6mg/L
total hardness, Liberty Lynbrook system (soft)
Source: Liberty Utilities NY, Lynbrook 2026 CCR (2025 data)The biggest of the Five Towns, and still a hamlet.
Wikipedia counts Woodmere among the Five Towns, with Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Inwood and the Hewletts, each with its own stop on the LIRR's Far Rockaway Branch. Woodmere tried to incorporate as a village in 1910 and again in 1978 and failed both times, so it is still an unincorporated hamlet run by the Town of Hempstead. It covers 2.7 square miles, about 5% of it water. Depending on the street, children go to Hewlett-Woodmere or Lawrence public schools; the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) moved its elementary school to Woodmere in 2017. The Woodmere Volunteer Fire Department has served it since 1889, according to the Five Towns NY Rising plan.
The Census Bureau's latest five-year survey counts about 5,400 homes, with a median year built of 1959. 18% were built before 1940, 32% in the 1950s and 30% in the 1960s; only 8% went up after 1980. 87% are single-family detached houses, 9% are in buildings of five or more units, and 92% are owner-occupied.
So a typical house here has drain and water lines 55 to 75 years old, and the oldest have pipes approaching a century, unless they've been replaced. Rusty water from one tap, low pressure upstairs or a main line that keeps clogging are signs to have the supply piping and main drain checked.
Most homes heat with gas.
The ACS shows 76% of Woodmere homes heat with utility gas and 19% with fuel oil. We run and repair gas lines for heating equipment, water heaters, ranges and dryers. We don't sell or deliver oil.
Flood zone and the Sandy sewer backups.
Laying FEMA's current flood map over the Census boundary, about 62% of the Woodmere CDP is in the high-risk (1% annual chance) flood zone, zone AE, and another 11% is in the moderate (0.2%) zone. The Five Towns NY Rising plan says Sandy pushed a surge of about five feet up Motts Creek, which cuts through Woodmere, flooding most of the hamlet from its northern border to the creek and south past Peninsula Boulevard to Dickens and Bryant streets; Branch Boulevard buckled over the creek, and low spots along Peninsula Boulevard flood regularly in heavy rain and high tides. The same plan says that when the county's Bay Park sewage plant lost power, the sewer systems in Woodmere, Hewlett and Hewlett Harbor backed up into the streets and the basements of some homes. The county has since built an earthen berm and flood wall around Bay Park, rated for a surge of up to 18 feet, and in 2018 the Town of Hempstead accepted more than $1.7 million in state storm-recovery money for Woodmere and Inwood drainage, including backflow devices and bigger pipes. Those protect the public system. On your own house sewer line, a backwater (sewer check) valve closes if the street sewer backs up, so sewage can't come in through basement floor drains. We install them. If your water heater or gas appliances ever sat in flood water, have them checked before relighting.
On the county sewer.
Nassau County's health department lists Woodmere's sewers under the Nassau County Department of Public Works (516-571-6841). A backup that stops at your house is usually in your own line to the street; we clear it. If neighbors are backed up too, call the county.
Water: Liberty Utilities, Lynbrook system.
EPA's service-area map puts essentially all of Woodmere on Liberty Utilities New York's Lynbrook Operations District, and Liberty's 2026 report on 2025 water lists Woodmere among the communities it serves. The district runs 20 well treatment sites across 43 square miles: caustic soda or lime raises the pH to cut corrosion of household plumbing, iron is filtered out at 13 sites, and sodium silicate holds the rest in solution. Total hardness ran 4.2 to 58.6 mg/L, which is soft. PFOA was detected up to 11.5 parts per trillion at the raw wells (New York's limit is 10, judged on a running average; the report lists no violation). In 2025 lead tap tests, 2 of 104 homes were over the action level, with a 90th percentile of 3 parts per billion. Across the whole district, Liberty's state-filed inventory counts 3,700 lead service lines and 15,239 of unknown material. With nearly a fifth of Woodmere's homes built before 1940, it's worth knowing what your service line is made of. Liberty: 1-877-426-6999.
Permits and licensing: Town of Hempstead.
Woodmere is an unincorporated hamlet, so plumbing and gas permits go through the Town of Hempstead Building Department (One Washington Street, Hempstead), which also handles plumber licensing.
