AG demands answers as Florida families suffer from FEMA regulatory burden

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square 

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is demanding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency make exceptions to a regulatory program or eliminate it in regions devastated by hurricanes Helene and Milton. Floridians who are trying to rebuild are being prevented from doing so because of regulatory requirements that could force them to leave altogether, she says.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida within 13 days, striking some communities twice. Helene approached Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 landing on Sept. 27. Milton, a Category 3, hit on Oct. 9, tearing through east central Florida with up to 180-mile-hour winds, dumping 15 inches of rain, flooding roughly a dozen rivers, and spawning at least 19 confirmed tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service. St. Petersburg was devastated by 18 inches of rain, a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall/flooding event, according to several reports. Entire communities were wiped out.

Milton was the third hurricane to hit Florida in one year, the sixth time the state has reported three hurricanes in one hurricane season since 1871. Excluding loss of life, Milton’s financial damages are estimated to be between $17 billion and $28 billion for residential and commercial wind and flood losses, according to a CoreLogic analysis. Including uninsured property losses, the total surges to $34 billion. Milton is expected to be among the 10 most damaging hurricanes of all time.

While Helene devastated an entire region of North Carolina, CoreLogic estimates total flood and wind loses from Helene are between $30.5 billion and $47.5 billion across 16 states.

“Florida was recently devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, leaving some Floridians with only debris in the places where homes once stood,” Moody said. “While the recovery process has begun, burdensome regulations are making it so people cannot afford to repair damage and could force them to leave the communities they love.”

In a letter to FEMA’s acting director, she wrote, “While the rebuilding process continues, a disturbing issue has come to light. Many homes affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton are participants in the National Flood Insurance Plan (NFIP), which is administered by FEMA. According to multiple reports, NFIP regulations are preventing many of these homes from being rebuilt or repaired. According to NFIP regulations, homes that need ‘substantial improvements’ must be rebuilt to specific flood-resistant building code standards.”

The problem stems from regulatory definitions, she says. “Substantial improvements” is defined as “reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement’ to a structure” that incurred substantial damage. Substantial damage is defined as any structure for which a repair would cost 50% or more of the structure’s pre-damage value.

“Essentially, this means that if a citizen has any damage to their home that would cost half the pre-storm value of their home to be repaired, no other work on the home can be performed without updating the entire home to NFIP’s specifications,” Moody notes.

Many of Florida’s hurricane survivors lived in older homes in low-income communities and don’t have the financial resources to rebuild their homes. Because of the costs of repairs, age of their homes and extent of damage, NFIP regulations prevent homeowners from collecting insurance to make the repairs unless they can come up with the money to bring their older homes up to current standards.

As a result, “many people will simply abandon their home and, possibly, have no choice but to leave the community they love altogether,” Moody said.

The regulations have created “too great a cost … borne by those who have suffered most,” she said. The regulatory burden “leaves residents footing the bill to cover significant costs to comply with regulations that likely did not exist when their homes were built.”

She asked FEMA to allow for exemptions to the regulatory process or suspend the NFIP program altogether in the impacted areas.

The appeal comes after Moody sued current and former FEMA employees personally for allegedly ignoring storm victim households solely because they expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump.

According to whistleblower reports, FEMA workers in Lake Placid were directed to ignore at least 20 homes of storm victims whose properties displayed Trump signs or flags.

In Pinellas County, Florida, which was hit hard by both hurricanes, 91% of those arrested for looting were in the country illegally, the county’s sheriff said. He implemented an aggressive law enforcement effort in a county that issued evacuation orders for both storms impacting 500,000 residents.

Those targeting Florida properties were citizens of Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela, all illegally in the country, The Center Square reported.