‘No Uniformity’: Florida Department of Emergency Management Targets Cities and Counties Due to Trailer Delays

FORT MYERS, Florida — The Florida Department of Emergency Management and Gov. Ron DeSantis want more red tape to be cut locally so affected Ians can get more travel trailers.

The trailers are from the Unite Florida government program, which launched in late November 2022.

During a press conference in Fort Myers on Thursday, FDEM director Kevin Guthrie said 103 people are awaiting on-site verification, 33 need utility verification and 45 are awaiting clearances from their local jurisdiction.

At the local level, there is no uniformity in terms of deadlines, permits, checks, required documentation and so on in any individual jurisdiction,” Guthrie said.

A Lee County spokesperson responded to Guthrie’s statement by stating:

For unincorporated Lee County, we may inform you that we have a process in place to eliminate or reduce delays. We have worked hand in hand with two different government agencies to ensure that our residents are assisted seamlessly through this process.

Since the Dec. 6 Board of Commissioners workshop that I mentioned in my previous email, the Lee County Community Development Department (DCD) team has worked closely with Florida Emergency Management Division leadership to streamline the permit and screening process for the placement of temporary housing in unincorporated Lee County. The District has designated a responsible officer at DCD to receive and process permit applications. In addition, the county invited the Lee State Department of Health to discuss and assist with the septic screening process.

Lee County has made the process of installing trailers on site extremely efficient.

“We have a couple of thousand people who can use trailers right now,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

Next in line are 2,400 trailers ordered at the state expense.

On Thursday, Guthrie also said that one of the other major restrictions is coming back to FEMA. They can’t park travel trailers in canals. DeSantis said they could be fined and not be able to participate in the federal flood insurance program.

Guthrie said they are sending a letter to FEMA “requesting that we can put these trailers in the path of the flood and help us find a solution, sit down at the table and discuss how we can do this.”

“Let’s get rid of bureaucracy. We need to work with the locals, we need to work with FEMA to be able to do this,” DeSantis said. “Hopefully we are in healthy competition with FEMA to deploy as many trailers as quickly as possible.”

One Fort Myers woman received her state-funded trailer over the weekend by calling about a month ago.

“It’s a blessing,” said Barbara Morgan. “It’s fine. I didn’t really realize that because of all the help I got and every place that was waiting for me, how good it is to have my place again.”

DeSantis says they have 140 publicly funded trailers, while FEMA has 80. Fox 4 has contacted FEMA to confirm their numbers, and the request is still on track.

We have also contacted the city of Fort Myers and Cape Coral about Guthrie’s statement.

This was announced by the representative of Cape Coral.

Cape Coral has a temporary habitable structure ordinance that governs the placement of travel trailers. For those receiving trailers through FDEM and FEMA, their contractors handle the permits.

  • For private plots and private motorhomes, the property owner must apply for a temporary residence permit.
  • Need an electrician to connect to the electric.
  • Private trailers require a review by a building official or designee to declare the home uninhabitable.
  • All permits require the granting of building permits for the house and the commencement of work while the temporary building permit is in effect.
  • Each lot will be assessed by the building department for floodplain compliance if it is in the SFHA.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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