Ozello still struggles post-Helene

It’s Tuesday, so let’s talk about Ozello.

Not Pirates Cove Ozello. Not glampground Ozello.

No. The Ozello where people live, work, retire, and thrive.

Or, for some, survive.

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An Ozello friend sends me encouraging notes every so often with a financial gift. Both the note and gift are much appreciated.

Most recently, along with a beautiful card — which Bunny promptly chomped during her first and only non-crate freedom alone in the house — my friend sent a separate note. She wanted me to know how her community is doing post-Helene.

Not well. From her note:

“It has been difficult, no pulling punches. Ozello is still hurting. The Island Outpost will not be open for a while and that place was our anchor for camaraderie and news.”

Referencing a friend, she wrote: “His house was flooded as well as many of our friends’ homes. There were many great volunteers helping wherever they could, but now the emotional impact has overridden the physical, and decisions ‘to stay or move’ are on the minds of many of our friends. It’s just too much to think about another flood when one is 80-plus years, even those of us in good health.”

More:

“It’s the little things that bring on tears; like the dinner I planned on putting in the slow cooker and realizing at the last minute that it too had ended up in the debris pile in front of our house. It’s impossible to recall it all.”

My friend set Helene’s flood line at 57 inches — higher than the March 1993 “no-name” storm.

She concluded: “Helene’s surge knocked over a garage refrigerator and floated a tractor mower several feet. This time we left the island with both cars, the dog, and clothes for three nights in Pine Ridge with friends who left Ozello after Idalia.”

I set her note aside on my desk. 

You may have heard recently that the county sent letters to people whose homes were “substantially damaged” from Helene’s floods. 

To a homeowner flood victim, this is notification from the government that you’re in deep doo-do. Or, in official vernacular, you’ve hit the 50% rule.

As government rules go, this one is simple to grasp: Following a flood event, if the cost of repairs exceed 50% of the home’s value, the feds require the owner to elevate the home or demolish it.

I first learned about the 50% rule following Hurricane Hermine when numerous homeowners in Crystal River, Ozello, and Homosassa were faced with this daunting task: Rebuild up; or no build at all.

Many folks blamed the City of Crystal River and the county for enforcing such an archaic rule. The more I learned, I realized local government really played very little role in all this. In fact, if it were up to the locals, they’d turn a blind eye to the 50% rule and let folks rebuild their lives as best they can without government interference.

Wish it was that simple.

While it is true that the Citrus County building inspectors are the ones who determine whether your house is at the 50% level or not, and plenty in Ozello feel inspectors are being overzealous in their determination, the truth is the feds lean heavily on local government to do just that.

FEMA has the hammer: Follow our rules or lose community discounts on flood insurance. And they’re not kidding.

A few weeks ago, a Citrus County commissioner sent me info about FEMA breathing down the necks of Lee County communities following Hurricane Ian in 2022 to make sure structures destroyed by flood were rebuilt to elevation standards. Every T crossed, every i dotted.

FEMA said four of the five communities passed muster. One didn’t: Fort Myers Beach, which lost its flood insurance discount because it allowed “noncompliant structures” in the flood zone.

The town is on two years’ probation with FEMA. That’s two years, at least, before flood insurance costs can stabilize for its property owners.

Big Brother? For sure. Necessary? Depends on who you ask.

I’m not here to debate the intricacies of FEMA. They wield the stick and there’s not much we can do about that.

But it’s Christmastime, and we have neighbors in crisis. Please keep Ozello in your holiday prayers. And we all look forward to the Island Outpost reopening soon as possible.

That’s it from the World Headquarters. Have a beautiful Tuesday, friends.

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