CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 A Cape Coral homeowner says a fire has left him stuck in a battle with federal flood rules that could cost him everything.<\/p>\n
Steven Duke just wants to get back into his gray house on Southwest 6th Ave. in Cape Coral, but a pink notice on the door is standing in his way.<\/p>\n
“It was a fire that engulfed the kitchen and the lanai, and the fire and water damage affected the rest of the house,” Duke said.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out on May 29th. Scorch marks are still visible on the front of the home and the lanai took the worst of it.<\/p>\n
When Duke tried to get a permit in June for a professional team to clear out the damage, he ran into a problem.<\/p>\n
Because the home sits in a flood zone, the city told him it must be elevated before any work can begin.<\/p>\n
“They won’t issue a permit until a plan is arranged to raise the property,\u201d Duke said. \u201cWe can’t do that, it’s financially impossible for me. I’m 75, I work a part-time job just to make ends meet. I can’t afford that at all.”<\/p>\n
The issue stems from FEMA’s 50% rule. It says that if the cost of repairs to a home in a special flood hazard area equals or exceeds 50% of the home’s value, the property must be brought up to all federal code, which in Duke’s case means raising the house above flood stage.<\/p>\n
Duke brought his frustrations to a recent WINK Listens event held in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n
His home survived Hurricane Ian, Milton and Helene without a single drop of water getting inside, yet the rule still applies.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t aware of the (50%) rule. I didn’t know such a thing existed. I bought the house in 2019. I was told you live in a flood zone, so you’re going to have to have flood insurance, which I did. I got the flood insurance, and I pay my premiums like everybody else does in their escrow. But that’s it. I just have lost everything,” Duke said.<\/p>\n
Duke and his family are currently living at a neighbor’s property while they figure out their next move.<\/p>\n
He says selling the land for lot value is one option he is considering, but raising the house is simply not something he can afford.<\/p>\n
“I want this rule to be abolished. Because it’s making the person who owns the property now pay the sins of the father,” Duke said.<\/p>\n
This fight over the 50% rule is not new for Cape Coral. Two years ago, the city nearly lost its 25% discount on flood insurance after FEMA said the city was not enforcing the rule strictly enough, though FEMA later reinstated that discount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 A Cape Coral homeowner says a fire has left him stuck in a battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,28],"class_list":["post-363776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}