Key West slow to adopt flood prevention measures after Wilma

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Ten years after Hurricane Wilma caused over $28 billion dollars in property damage in Monroe County, has anything been done to prevent that level of destruction from occurring again.

 

Some but not enough, says Scott Fraser, Key West FEMA Coordinator. Tasked as the liaison between the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as managing the finance side of disaster recovery in Key West, Fraser has made it his mission to help residents survive another severe storm. He’s succeeded in helping create new building and permitting processes that encourage property owners to take flood prevention measures. But the road to convincing them to spend what can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars is difficult.

 

“It’s been a bit like pulling teeth to get people to take actions for preventative measures. The only time it gets done is when it’s required,” he said.

 

Fraser pointed to some solid progress, like the recent referendum allowing residential property owners to exceed local height limits if they lift the entire property up to four feet above the base flood elevation. That means they can raise the roof height of their property one foot for every foot they lift their first floor, up to four feet. Homes and commercial buildings could rise up to 40 feet in areas where the maximum building height is currently 35 feet.

 

And new storm drains have been installed in several areas in Key West, including Front Street and in the neighborhood behind the Horace O’Bryant Elementary School, an area that used to flood during minor rain storms.

 

“They are already seeing some relief from what I call incidental flooding. But tropical storms are another matter,” Fraser said about the HOB-area neighborhood.

 

Figuring out what to do to protect local property is simple: lift the building higher out of potential floodwaters. A property owner is required to elevate their building if they do a renovation that costs more than 50 percent of the assessed value of the building. But with Key West property values so high, a renovation costing more than that 50 percent is almost impossible to achieve unless the house is being gutted.

 

Despite the destruction done by Hurricane Wilma, only about two dozen property owners chose to raise their homes afterwards while they were repairing storm damage, Fraser said.

 

“That’s not a lot. We tried to [convince property owners to elevate property]. When it comes down to it, when people say, ‘do I absolutely have to do it,’ the answer is no,” he said.

 

There is better news for combatting the relentless rise in insurance costs in Key West. Fraser has been instrumental in fighting to get the city back into the federal Community Rating System program (CRS), a move that could potentially lower flood and windstorm insurance premiums by several thousand dollars for local property owners who buy insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

 

Administered by FEMA, the program gives points to communities that take action to manage their floodplains above and beyond the minimum NIFP requirements. Fraser has helped completely revamp the Key West building and permitting process, including rewriting the local flood ordinances to match up with the state’s, and has applied to FEMA for the go-ahead to ask the NFIP for reinstatement into the rating system program.

 

“I’m looking to get a Category 7 designation [out of 10 categories], which would be 15 percent discount. That’s 15 percent right off the bottom of the bill,” Fraser said.

 

 

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