FEMA eliminates flood discounts for violations
An AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team removes damaged flooring from a flooded home on Pine Island, Florida after Hurricane Ian, November 29, 2022. Courtesy, AmeriCorps
Elected officials from both the state and federal governments are appealing to FEMA officials to at least reconsider – if not overturn – their decision in late March to eliminate the 25% discount on federal flood insurance policies on up to 125,000 property owners in Southwest Florida. FEMA said five governments in Lee County, ground zero for Hurricane Ian’s September 2022 landfall, failed to follow federal rules on permissible rebuilding after the storm.
FEMA eliminated the discount provided under the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS), which rewards local communities that mitigate flood risk with various policy discounts for their residents. That includes proper enforcement of the so-called “50% Rule” which requires homes in flood zones that suffer damage of at least 50% of their market value (not including the land) be brought up to current building codes – often involving more costly rebuild and elevation, rather than simple repair.
FEMA Region 4 Administrator Robert Samaan
FEMA claimed local officials had loosened the rules after 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. FEMA Region 4 Administrator Robert Samaan detailed to the Miami Herald how the agency tried to get the needed information. “Nobody wanted to get to this point, but unfortunately this is where we’re at with this,” Samaan said. The decision applies to Cape Coral, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Estero and unincorporated Lee County.
Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter
“FEMA is the villain here,” said Cape Coral mayor John Gunter at a meeting last Wednesday, putting the loss of the discount to his residents at $8 million. The average flood premium will rise by about $300 a year, starting Oct. 1. He and other local officials outlined in a statement the back and forth communication between them and FEMA over the past 18 months since Ian’s landfall. “For the federal government to have made this decision without any prior discussions seems punitive,” said Lee Board of County Commission Chairman Mike Greenwell.
Sanibel Island and the City of Fort Myers were not found in violation and will remain in the CRS program. Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson, when asked by local television station Fox 4 what his city did right, answered “It’s a never-ending process,” working with FEMA. “You have to understand the requirements and do your best to meet them…It’s a continual assessment on our part, not only to make sure we stay within the guidelines, but hopefully we’re improving our rating to, possibly, get a greater discount at some point.”
One of many coastal homes in Lee County buckled by Hurricane Ian’s winds and storm surge, December 21, 2022. Courtesy, AmeriCorps
Both Florida U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, joined by Congressmen Byron Donalds and Greg Steube, sent a letter last Wednesday to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell urging her to reverse the agency’s decision “and meet with local leaders to remedy any issues and keep NFIP discounts in place. (This) is yet another unforeseen challenge for Lee County residents, who continue their fight to recover from Hurricane Ian,” the letter read. The elected officials also took exception again to FEMA’s revamped rating system, Risk Rating 2.0, which has increased rates on some properties and decreased rates on others. A federal judge recently rejected a request by Florida and nine other states seeking an injunction on the new rates.
Our take here at LMA: this story illustrates where the “rubber meets the road.” A home is at least 50% damaged and the taxpayer-supported FEMA wants to avoid repeatedly spending money on the same structure whenever there’s a flood and so requires the home be torn-down if needed in order to meet current, more resilient building codes. But the homeowner either doesn’t have the money or the insurance coverage to pay for that or doesn’t want to wait for a rebuild when a “simple repair” can get them back in their home. The question is, how do local building officials respond to homeowners who are in this situation? The Sarasota Herald reported two months post-Ian that local government officials in Southwest Florida had been meeting with FEMA officials to relax the rules, with no success. We will follow this story and report back.
LMA Newsletter of 4-8-24
