FEMA Singles Out Fort Myers Beach

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Back in March, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Estero, Bonita and Unincorporated Lee County were all notified they would be losing their discount on National Flood insurance. The main reason was allowing unpermitted work to be done by residents and businesses after Hurricane Ian.

That March notification started 9 months of detailed communications and extensions to the FEMA deadline between all five municipalities and FEMA, including mounds of paperwork to try to prove that permits were being pulled, processes were being followed, and elected officials were doing everything by the book to get residents back in their homes without jeopardizing the discount.

On Thursday, FEMA notified Cape Coral, Estero, Bonita and Unincorporated Lee County they passed the test and could keep the discount. Fort Myers Beach was told they failed and would be put on probation for at least one year with residents losing their 25% flood insurance discount for that year. The only reason Fort Myers Beach was given was: “unsafe structures.” The ruling from FEMA came down verbally over the phone with an official letter that will be sent “soon.”

Mayor Dan Allers, clearly not happy with the ruling, says the only thing FEMA told them was they lost the discount due to “unsafe structures in a high hazard flood zone.” They were not any more specific than that. If that is in fact the official ruling from FEMA, that would include a much wider swath of buildings other than what FEMA has led the town to believe was the reason; containers like La Ola and The Goodz and the connex boxes used for storage up and down the island.

For example…

The Wyndham is clearly unsafe (the town has red-tagged it). The owner is dragging his feet taking the building down so the town may have to do it for him.
The house across from The Pink Shell is clearly unsafe (the homeowner has filed a lawsuit against the town for attempting to knock it down).

The Neptune Resort is obviously unsafe (they say their bank told them not to tear it down).

There are a host of other unsafe structures, both residential and commercial, that the town has aggressively gone after to try to get into compliance. Fort Myers Beach was ground zero for Hurricane Ian 2 years ago. Nearly every residential and commercial structure on the island was damaged by that storm. Many residents were trapped in their homes and condo buildings for days without power and running water. Some residents died.

The local Fort Myers Beach government in place at the time was non-existent and had to be replaced by the newly elected officials, including the Town Manager and Town Attorney. Once a new Town Manager was hired, new systems were put in place, the permitting process was fixed, and today residential construction can be seen on every street of Fort Myers Beach. There is no rule book in place to recover from a Category 5 Hurricane.

To this day, many condo buildings are still closed as they fight with insurance companies and try to find reasonably priced contractors while not nailing owners with so many assessments they can no longer afford to live in their buildings. FEMA is throwing salt into their wounds by eliminating their insurance discount.

In addition to the vagueness of the reason given to the town for dropping the discount, there’s the FEMA administered Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. That program grants money to homeowners to either elevate their house ($150,000) or reconstruct it ($400,000). There are about 50 Fort Myers Beach homeowners who’ve applied for this grant. Over 2 years later they are still waiting for the money. Not only are they still waiting for the grant money, they’ve been told by FEMA not to touch their homes. So you have at least 50 homes on Fort Myers Beach, some of which could be determined to be unsafe, because FEMA told the homeowner not to touch them.

If FEMA cannot figure out how to administer its own grant program in 2 years how do they expect Fort Myers Beach to clear thousands of structures, after a category 5 Hurricane, in 2 years?

So what does this mean to the thousands of Fort Myers Beach residents in the National Flood Insurance Program? It’ll vary from street to street and house to house.

Kevin and Michelle Kroeger, who are from Iowa, saved up for their dream home to retire in a house on Sabal Drive. They were paying $3,000 per year for flood insurance. Losing the discount will tack on another $750.

Scott Slavin lives on Fairview Isles. He’s paying $4,400 just for flood insurance. Losing the discount could add over $1,000 a year to have flood insurance.

Ted and Dee Pikons live on Bahia Via. They are rebuilding, still living in a trailer on their property, as they rebuild 14 feet higher than the house they lost in the storm. They were paying $2,500 per year as part of the NFIP and losing the discount will tack on another $625.

Dave Leigh is on Bay View Drive. Dave is actually one of the 50 homeowners still waiting for the FEMA grant so he can either elevate or rebuild his home. Dave was (and still is even without a home) paying $5,000 per year for flood insurance. Dave owns a house that FEMA has instructed him not to touch as he waits, now for over 2 years, for FEMA to administer the grant money.

It’s important to note that anyone who applies for a mortgage on Fort Myers Beach must have flood insurance. Banks will not approve a mortgage without it.

For months town staff has been reporting to the Town Council that they’ve been regularly meeting with FEMA and providing them all the documentation they’ve requested in order to keep the discount. There’s also been a not-so-secret feeling amongst the town government that no matter what they did FEMA was going to drop the town’s discount, that FEMA does not want to deal with barrier islands that keep getting hammered by storms.

What does it mean for Fort Myers Beach to be on probation? According to the FEMA call to the town Thursday, this probation is for a year. Perhaps the town could get the discount back after a year. Does that mean every unsafe structure would need to be gone by November 18, 2025? The Mayor says it has not gotten very clear direction from FEMA on exactly what they want done and by when. There’s also a possibility that Fort Myers Beach could be completely kicked out of the program leaving thousands of residents to fend for themselves to find flood insurance. There’s also the possibility that the new Trump administration could make sweeping changes to FEMA and , with the help of Senator Rick Scott, Fort Myers Beach could be looked at a little differently than it is now.

When the town receives their official letter from FEMA we will share it with everyone here in our newsletter and on our Facebook page.

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56 COMMENTS

  1. Pretty simple every house that is ONE STORY should have a Demo permit or Substantial Improvement permit on record. After that dwellings should have been red tagged for demo as unsafe. No permit should have been an immediate stop work posting.

    How long can it take to look up each dwelling left using town water utilities on a website portal with two or three people working on it. They have had almost 3 years to figure it out. How many houses are left on FMB that are one story.
    Gotta start somewhere.

    The thought of bringing folks into compliance is a loosing battle. Tag it for demo and let them get on the ball to rebuild it correctly following the law.

    What’s up with the new staff Carl Thomas for flood director? Did we let Kristin go finally and thankfully Bill Stout is gone who has zero experience in construction.

  2. Stop blaming FEMA and everyone else for the lack of leadership in our city government. The drive down Estero Blvd. can show you the reason why Ft. Myers Beach is behind all of the other cities around here. It seems the city leadership cannot support the desires the local residents want and requested for the future of Ft. Myers Beach. So it’s now going to cost us more and take longer to move forward, thanks for looking out for your constituents.

  3. At what point do we start holding the town management accountable? They have lost 3 trucks, a boat, and now the residents on the island flood insurance…

    • Oh no, we can’t do that. As some one posted recently that Mayor Allers is always busy “grinding” for the people. LOL Notice how they are silent on this? Allers will not miss the opportunity to get in front of a camera but now he is silent. Let’s see how he dances around this one when Ed holds his feet to the fire. No more excused for “the grinder”. He needs to be held accountable for sure. He should have never been selected as mayor again. The home owners should sue the town council and mayor for the extra money this is going to cost us because of their negligence. I am beyond angry about this.

    • Maybe Ed will ask Allers that question and don’t let him squirm out of the answer. Who is going to pay for the trucks and stolen boat? He will say insurance but we all know that will now go up. And now we have this latest failure. How will the owners be compensated for the loss they have suffered for these failures by the town and let’s also not hold the sheriff accountable as well. Have they recovered the stolen boat? Have they solved the murder at Lani Kai that there were witnesses and videos? Sure makes us feel like our tax dollars are paying wages of people who are not looking out for us. Maybe the mayor should actually get to work and DO SOMETHING instead of doing photo ops and driving up and down streets staring at houses. (We see you on our ring doorbell) Y’all created this now FIX IT!

      • I think it’s town staff as in Andy Hyatt and Frankie.. they are hiding information to the town council to save their own behinds. I’ve heard rumors they talk bad about the council behind their backs.. for some reason the council backs them

  4. Ed, first thanks for the update. FMB was only governmental put on the naughty list by FEMA. All the other surrounding communities are ok. High level it seems the Town Staff and elected officials are working very hard but need to become nastier over the next few months. As Ed’s article states unfortunately, our island still has way too many structures that need to be demolished. I am optimistic that the town staff and elected officials who have been very accommodating will act quickly to get all those unsafe structures removed as soon as possible.

  5. The insurance carriers, all of those selling flood insurance, take their direction from FEMA. There is only one blanket flood policy for everyone and its administered by FEMA…. who now reports to Homeland Security. All of the flood premiums go into a national pool. FEMA sets the rules for all of the carriers.

  6. I’m not in government but it sure seems that there is no clear steps between permitting and what FEMA requires, seems to be a constant battle that we’re all tired of hearing about. FEMA is a division of the government that (in my opinion) that is needed but also needs to look at what is good for each individual municipality.
    Let’s face it, FMB is still a disaster, getting rid of the trailers isn’t going to help anything, only hurt.

  7. Can we please stop all this conspiracy nonsense about FEMA and focus on the issue here – the loss of the discount and the town’s complicity in it.

    • It’s either FEMA’s fault or the town council’s fault. So which is it?? I know I have been stalked over gravel in my yard (by the town) yet for some reason the town has allowed dilapitated buildings/homes to stand for over 2 yrs. They have ignored the fact that we have dead trees (from Ian) still standing and no one is doing anything to clean up this island. The island looks like a war zone. There are way too many outsiders on BTR that sit behind their keyboards and praise Allers so it comes across that town council are doing a great job. Well, now we have this….so how good of a job have they done? And who pays the price? Allers? He’s a RENTER! If people are not pissed at this, I really don’t know what it will take.

  8. We must follow the town rules. The town didn’t follow FEMA rules. The residents who thought they could beat the system. Now that we have run most of the locals off the beach and the neighborhoods have become short term rentals and investment properties is FEMA even necessary. The only ones that seem to be receiving FEMA funding is Town Hall

  9. Hasn’t Rick Scott been your senator all along? What would make you think he’s coming to your rescue now? And if Trump treats you like he treated Puerto Rico, paper towels is all you will get. I too wish FMB was not singled out and got the support and funding it deserves but hoping some politician on either side of the isle is coming to your rescue is, IMO, delusional.

  10. I applied for that $400k FEMA rebuild money.

    I was told I did not qualify because I had an insurance policy. The FEMA money can ONLY be granted if you are self-insured. It’s ridiculous. My Insurance paid out about a third of what my total rebuild cost is totaling to with the high costs of contractors.

  11. Don’t forget about the “elephant on the south end” ……. Fish Tale Marina. Currently owned by ELS ( publicly traded compant with a market capitalization of over $14 billion) and they let it rot since the storm. Maybe a good investigative piece on this property is needed.

  12. Let’s face it, the town looks and feels dirty, neglected, and it’s past the time to keep blaming others. The town has said for over a year that they are going to take down buildings…so why haven’t they? Everything should be cleared out by now. Maybe the rebuild will take time, but clearing out and cleaning up is long o er due. Maybe now some action will take place.

        • Jef, I’m not buying that line. It has been 2 yrs and plenty of time for inspections, pictures, etc. Additionally. there are still piles of debris, broken fences,etc and loads of dangerous dead trees that are not being addressed. We have lived for 26 months with lies and excuses. I am disgusted with the town council and the mayor and all his excuses. “We are looking into that”, “We have sent letters”, etc. Total failure!!! At this point it is just embarrassing the way the island still looks and now we have to pay 25% more for insurance. We are the ONLY town in the county that lost its discount.

    • But we have lots of turtle lights and mountains of sand. I post comments about how slow things are moving and how our mayor is not doing his job and I am blocked, deleted and attacked. This is proof he has not done his job and he was re-elected. But people voted for this so there you go. Now we have to live with yet another failure. Someone tell me what he has done to stop this from happening?

  13. FEMA needs the money after spending it on illegal aliens and not expecting all the hurricanes. Yes we should have taken what they said more seriously but I am sure they will use this to fill up their depleted funds. Now I will have to spend even more on what is already a YUGE tax and insurance bill. UGH.

  14. To all those insisting this insurance disaster is all on FEMA: That dog won’t hunt.
    As far back as last spring FEMA officials visited the island after months of pushing the town to see its rules were enforced and specifically singled out LaOla and other vendor trailers as being in violation of FEMA rules forbidding them in flood zone areas, not just in hurricane season but in any season.
    The town did nothing but obfuscate in attempts to get those few businesses thru season.
    Finally, in July, FEMA, exasperated with the town’s failure to act on the trailers and other truant business and home owners, informed the town it had until Nov 18 to do what it was supossed to do, what it had been informed it must do, what the county and Cape Coral and Bonita obviously were doing.
    As late as the council meeting of Sept. 23 the town was still listening to delay and appeal from Frankie, and giving those truant property owners false hope of getting extensions, offering an 11th hour plan FEMA by then had no interest in. The mandate had been laid – move those trailers.
    Frankie told council “I can’t do that.” It’s was his job to do that. Council let him get away with it.
    Then, in the council meeting of Oct. 21, the council continued taking shots at FEMA and trying to change FEMA’s mandate. Allers, his council and staff were still in denial one month from the mandate.
    They knew what they were supposed to and they didn’t do it over a long period of many months. There were forceful things they could have done- enforcing their own codes would have should have, been first – but this council didn’t do it.
    And Frankie’s comment that he would not tell those trailers to leave should be evidence enough of the attitude that had developed inside town hall, an attitude that now will cost 5000 beach property owners much higher flood insurance premiums.
    I would encourage all of you council supporters to take a few minutes and watch and listen to the video of the council meetings of Sept. 23 and Oct. 18. The continuing push back on FEMA rules is striking.

    • Notwithstanding what you are saying about Frankie, all of the offenders knew the deal. There was also a process that FEMA gave them. Notices and then court dates. The notices just went out two weeks ago. If they are citing dangerous buildings, it would cost the town an unthinkable amount of money to tear them down and clean up those cites.

  15. Ok what am I missing? everyone blames FEMA and how the town got singled out. The other 4 towns followed FEMAs direction and didnt lose their discount or go on probation. FMB didn’t follow FEMAs direction and lost the discount and is on probation. Seems pretty clear to me. But go ahead and keep blaming FEMA, that will surely help get the discount back.

  16. Oh my gosh don’t forget the old Fresh Catch/Junkanoo on the Beach. Absolutely terrible that it is still standing or should I say barely standing.

  17. Did Sanibel lose theirs as well? They must have an equal number of unsafe structures. Probably not as many trailer businesses operate there? Seems like FEMA was pretty clear about the trailers, but FMB just continued to argue about it.

    Very worried about what this means for condo associations.

  18. I was in the Federal Government for 32 years and agree with all of the comments about FEMA. You can bet your last money that once Elon and Vivek get settled, FEMA is out for a major overhaul or elimination.

  19. What does FEMA care about total loss structures?
    They don’t carry flood insurance anymore , and will be removed after they settle their insurance claims .
    The town has been aggressive on permitting and stopping illegal work for a very long time.
    It just doesn’t make common sense but it’s FEMA

  20. It’s obvious that this is political. I would hope Governor DeSantis will get involved and Rick Scott. We will have a new President Trump soon.and a Congress and Senate.Also it’s time to take all of these big buildings on the island that have not demolished their buildings Sue them their Banks and Insurance companies..Let’s get Tough Ft.myers Beach.

  21. Maybe we should start looking in the mirror and stop blaming others for our issues. I am not a fan of big government. FEMA is another over bloated arm of government that is out or touch with the population. Like it or not, the town decided to defiantly, not follow the guidelines in place for the trailers. The town bluffed by trying to delay the process, in hopes of a new administration in the coming year and FEMA is calling them on it. The town sacrificed the island residents and property owners with their bet to save a few bussiness’s.
    It appears FEMA also takes issue with the number for unsafe structures. There are a numbers of structures that sit, almost untouched since Ian. Arguably, many are beyond repair. While FMB is type only barrier island among the other communities, we need to stop blaming others and hold out leaders to a higher standard of getting the job done and stop working on island time.

  22. Since Pandemic FEMA is like every other business looking to hire qualified help but have to settle for just a warm body to fill a position It’s a crap shoot everywhere not just FEMA ! People don’t want to work and the ones that do want big bucks, lots of time off and naps! We own our own company and this is just facts!

  23. FEMA is the most incompetent organization with a lot of power. I hope this changes with the next administration. If there were any common sense used for their threats to Lee county and the individual municipalities, FMB should have a longer timeframe to be in their “compliance” since it was ground zero. The other areas didn’t have the damage to structures that we had on the island. Such insanity, they should be eliminated as they do more harm than good, especially making the people wait to be able to touch their destroyed homes all this time. They are a bunch of monkeys behind the desks there.

  24. Your math is off. If you currently pay $3,000 you will pay $4,000 after losing the 25% discount. The 25% is applied to the un-discounted (higher) amount.

  25. FEMA is an absolute joke, but there is also no way that you can argue with them when they say that there are “unsafe structures” all over the island that should have been cleared a loooooong time ago.

  26. FMB has not been “singled out.”

    When probation is unsuccessful, suspension from NFIP is the next step. Suspension has dire consequences, including communities no longer being eligible for disaster assistance (think of the millions FMB got for debris clean up, FEMA’s contribution toward the new pier, and other things), and suspension would impact the ability to obtain a mortgage on FMB.

    This is the list as of June of communities that failed probation and are on the verge of suspension. It includes communities in OH, TN, PA, VA, IN, MN, NM, and ME.

    https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_fi-suspensionnotice_06-20-24.pdf

  27. Condominiums will face a flood insurance premium increase in the tens of thousands of dollars. For Island Winds, it will be approximately $ 40,000. All while still battling FEMA to pay us for repaired damages from Ian. They have been delaying payments by continuing to move the “required” information goalposts or the invoices are not in the “correct” format needed for payment. It has been a shell game for the last two years.

  28. When using the phrasing ‘singled out, ‘ you can say there have always been 100s of Trump-supporting flags on the beach for many years

        • Correct! There’s already a task force looking into the FEMA reps that treated the Carolina/Tennessee Milton victims with Trump flags negatively. FEMA needs a total overhaul.

          • Despite their denials, excuses and finger pointing, the trail of public records recording their failure to act, as other governments in Lee County have, buries this government in complicity.

      • The FEMA employee who was fired for instructing her employees to avoid picking up hurricane debris from homes with Trump signs in their yard showed her text message from her boss that said exactly that. This was discussed during a recent congressional meeting where the Director of FEMA testified it was true this firing the employee. The whistleblower employee said it’s widespread across FEMA. They were useless way before that.

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