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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nLee County commissioners learned about FEMA\u2019s rule on Tuesday. For more than 70 days, no one from FEMA told anyone they wouldn\u2019t place a trailer in a flood zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s possible FEMA representatives who visited many destroyed, and damaged homes didn\u2019t know the rule either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One representative visited Richard Stengel\u2019s home in Island Park and marked it for a trailer, but since that day, Stengel hasn\u2019t heard a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy car was sitting right here. And that\u2019s gone,\u201d said Stengel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stengel didn\u2019t just lose his car in Hurricane Ian. His furniture\u2019s gone, his walls are gone, and his whole home is pretty much gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been living with my sister over in San Carlos Park. She had a she got a two-bedroom house. She had a bedroom I could [use], but she\u2019s gonna have to have that. So I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll be OK. Until next week, two weeks, two weeks, and then we\u2019ll see,\u201d said Stengel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stengel thought the one thing he would see by now is a FEMA trailer parked on his front lawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was approved, staked it out, and he says it will be probably two weeks, and that was first part of November,\u201d Stengel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That representative never said the trailer might never come because FEMA won\u2019t park its trailers in a flood zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat just boggles my mind,\u201d said Stengel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stengel isn\u2019t alone in that thought. Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman can\u2019t determine what FEMA is doing with this rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFEMA has rules [that] don\u2019t seem to make sense. They say we can\u2019t help flood victims because they live in flood plains. Well, yeah, of course, they live in flood plains. That\u2019s why they got flooded. That\u2019s why they need a FEMA trailer,\u201d said Hamman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a Lee County recovery workshop, FEMA representatives explained the reasoning. They said the trailers could be parked across Lee County for one hurricane season, maybe two, and that\u2019s not safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stengel had an easy answer for that concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet me take the responsibility. You know, and if there\u2019s a hurricane coming and you have to evacuate. They\u2019re looking for a loss of life. Believe me, you know, I learned my lesson this time,\u201d said Stengel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FEMA said it\u2019s looking into 18 locations where they could create a group site for the trailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s somewhere for them to be placed, but that doesn\u2019t help out people like Stengel as much as if it was on their front lawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWould that be hour drive from here? Or would it be a 15? It\u2019s not gonna be a 15 or 20-minute drive. So you\u2019d be commuting,\u201d said Stengel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is just not ideal, especially when you ask Hamman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter the hurricane happened, we had a parade of officials that came to town who said we\u2019re here to help anything you need, just let us know. Here\u2019s what we need right now. We need some temporary trailers that could be allowed to be placed on our resident\u2019s properties so that they can stay near their homes as they try to rebuild their lives,\u201d Hamman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A FEMA representative said it\u2019s looking at 18 different group sites across Lee County,
but those have to undergo extensive planning, including environmental and mitigation reviews. Then the commissioners have to look over it, and the public has to comment on it. All of which would take time, time that many storm victims just don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People needing FEMA trailers have waited months, and now, FEMA is saying no to some who have applied. FEMA says they do not want to put trailers in a flood… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1982],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56416,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56413\/revisions\/56416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}