LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Late Thursday, residents across Lee County got some good news... unless you live in Fort Myers Beach.
The majority of communities got the green light from FEMA that their discount on national flood insurance will be staying in place. The discounts allow residents to save up to 25% on premiums with the National Flood Insurance Program.
Since the spring, FEMA has been putting the county and various communities through their paces in terms of their compliance with rebuilding and permiting requirements after the widespread devastation dealt by Hurricane Ian in September 2022.
At the end of March, Lee County announced they had received notice the discount would be revoked near the end of the year. At the time FEMA claimed a large amount of unpermitted work, lack of documentation, and a failure to monitor activity in special flood hazard areas since Ian struck are some of the reasons why the discount was discontinued.
At the time it impacted 700 thousand residents living in Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Estero, Fort Myers Beach, and unincorporated Lee County. The county alone had more than 51,000 policies out of a population of 388,000.
All of those local governments appealed the decision and went to work with FEMA to provide the information and documentation the federal agency required.
By mid-July, FEMA had reinstated the discount to all of the communities listed above and promised to continue working toward a November checkpoint where a final decision would be made.
Fast-forward to Thursday afternoon: Lee County held a news conference to announce their success in completing the work to retain this critical discount. All of the other communities listed also kept theirs... except Fort Myers Beach.
In a statement, Town Manager, Andrew Hyatt wrote, “I am disappointed that FEMA has made the decision to put the Town on probation. Town staff is committed to following our FEMA approved plan and will continue to collaborate with FEMA and FDEM to regain our NFIP discount and CRS classification.”
The statement went on to read:
"The Town of Fort Myers Beach feels that through extensive discussions between the Town, FEMA, and the State, we have identified gaps in the disaster recovery policies and procedures that also were not designed for an event such as Hurricane Ian. In these discussions, FEMA has acknowledged areas in which the communication and framework broke down and has worked with the Town to fill these gaps."
Fort Myers Beach Community Correspondent Anvar Ruziev is working to get more comment and reaction to the decision regarding Fort Myers Beach and will update you tonight on FOX 4 News at 10:00 and online right here at fox4now.com.
Watch FOX 4's Community Correspondents cover the discount dispute in some of your communities below.
