Why? Why was Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Estero, Bonita Springs and Unincorporated Lee County Kicked out of the National Flood Insurance discount program? And why was Sanibel and the City of Fort Myers allowed to stay in?
Those are questions elected officials and staff members from each municipality are unable to answer. So far Lee County, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach have all read into the public record timelines of communications with FEMA since Hurricane Ian barreled through Southwest Florida on September 28, 2022. The City of Estero next meets on April 17th.
FEMA has not responded to multiple requests we’ve submitted to several different offices to try to get more detail.
It appears FEMA has determined, without providing any specific data, that Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Lee County, Bonita and Estero did not monitor their residents closely enough when it comes to enforcing FEMA’s 50% rule, and work being done without a permit. As a result, FEMA called all 5 municipalities on Thursday, March 28th, and told them their residents would no longer receive a discount in the National Flood Insurance Program. Each municipality was at a 5 rating which resulted in a 25% discount. On October 1st 2024, each municipality will become a 10 and receive a 0% discount. FEMA told each municipality they cannot appeal the decision.
The Florida Department of Emergency Management prepared an undated one-sheet (READ IT HERE) for the municipalities with details on the process FEMA says it went through in 2023, looking at these communities, and what was being rebuilt. The document ends with a number of properties in each municipality FEMA says broke the rules. FEMA claims they witnessed 105 properties on Fort Myers Beach that broke the rebuilding rules. They also claim that 21% of the work on the island post-Ian was being done without a permit (21% was the lowest percentage out of all 5 municipalities on the FEMA naughty list).
At the end of the day it’s the responsibility of each municipality to enforce the building rules and codes. Each municipality has a Flood Plain Manager that is assigned to work specifically with FEMA and the NFIP. The 4 municipalities that have gone public so far say they answered all of FEMA’s requests for information on time, they were following the rules, and going after their rule-breakers. If they all provided documentation to prove that, what’s the problem here?
Again, without getting any specific detail or explanation from FEMA, it appears FEMA either doesn’t believe the information the municipalities provided was accurate based on their field tours, they didn’t receive documents they asked for, or it’s some other unknown reason that they have not shared yet. Right now, all anyone can do is try to guess.
On Thursday, at a special Town Council meeting, Mayor Dan Allers read a timeline of communication with FEMA into the record. We’ve posted that at the end of this story. Since becoming Mayor, Allers has been warning residents that if they are doing work without a permit the will eventually get caught. He said Thursday that he was told by FEMA back in February of 2023 that as long as the town follows the rules they had in place before the storm they would be compliant with FEMA’s regulations. “We were doing that. We took their guidance very seriously. We were strict with people to be compliant. We’ve done everything they’ve asked of us.” And, he believes the timeline below proves his point.
Also on Thursday Fort Myers Beach Town Manager Andy Hyatt addressed the 105 properties on the FDEM one-sheet. Hyatt said the 105 properties were sent to the town in December of 2023.
– 5 addresses of the list did not even exist
– 2 properties were not in the town’s jurisdiction
– 4 addresses included structures that were compliant
– 5 addresses with potential substantial damage will need enforcement
– 28 addresses include properties where code enforcement opened cases.
– 5 addresses did not find any evidence of work completed.
– 51 addresses were found to be compliant, not substantially damaged or improved.
Hyatt echoed the managers from Lee County, Cape Coral, Lee County and Bonita. “We’ve been on top of everything and we’re at a loss as to why this has happened. We’ve given them so much information”
What’s most perplexing to everyone is FEMA basically made the call last Thursday and offered up no details, no data for each municipality to dig into to try to correct any mistakes, and told everyone there is no appeals process. You get the sense that the municipalities believed their relationships with FEMA was going along smoothly, both sides were working together to resolve 50/50 and permitting issues, and then one day it wasn’t.
Hyatt said the town reached out to the FEMA office in Atlanta on Friday of last week and was told, “This is a final decision. We don’t need to answer any of your questions.” Hyatt said, “That’s not cool. All we are requesting is a reason for why we are not getting a discount. We want to know what made FEMA make this decision without any communication.”
Mayor Dan Allers said, “We’re owed an explanation.”
Here’s the timeline of communication between the Town of Fort Myers Beach and FEMA.
Comments are closed.