SW Florida communities hope to keep flood discount
A series of regular meetings over recent weeks between FEMA and five Southwest Florida governments has helped clear up some of the confusion and miscommunication that local officials say led to FEMA’s decision to eliminate their 25% discount on federal flood insurance policies. In late March, FEMA announced it was pulling the discount because local officials had loosened the rules after Hurricane Ian and that there was a large amount of unpermitted work, a lack of documentation, and a failure to properly monitor rebuilding in FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Areas under the so-called “50% Rule.” That discount loss amounts to about $300 extra per policy for the now estimated 115,000 policyholders of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in those five communities of Cape Coral, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Estero and unincorporated Lee County. Collectively, tens of millions of dollars are at stake upon policy renewals October 1.
Lee County Manager Dave Harner
The Miami Herald reports “FEMA may actually already have many of the documents it requested from the communities, and the communities seem to have misunderstood the terminology FEMA staffers used to request certain documents.” Lee County Manager Dave Harner told the Herald that weekly meetings among all parties have helped clear up a gap in communication and “we ultimately believe we have the documentation.” He said FEMA has also provided extra staff to help the county find those needed documents.
“The big issue is you’re dealing with the third biggest storm in the country’s history and you’re dealing with a massive manpower issue,” Harner said. “We need upwards of 600 people to do an evaluation across the county. We don’t have that; the state didn’t have that.” FEMA had questions about post-Ian repair and rebuilding of 414 properties in Lee County, 238 in Cape Coral, 106 in Bonita Springs, and 105 in Fort Myers Beach.
Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter
On Thursday, Cape Coral announced it had submitted its updated compliance work to FEMA. Mayor John Gunter said that of the 238 homes examined, the city found 11% of properties to be non-compliant, either missing certain documents or having unpermitted work, compared to the 25% of properties that FEMA determined were non-compliant, according to the Fort Myers News-Press. “I feel that our investigation was extremely more thorough than FEMA’s, theirs was more of a broad overlook,” Gunter said. “It’s important to note that we have given the 11% a clear path on how to become compliant. Each property is different, so each property owner knows exactly what they need to do to be compliant, and the city will work with them.” The remaining four communities have until June 10 to submit their updated documentation to FEMA.
LMA Newsletter of 5-13-24
