Lee County Emergency Services has updated its Evacuation Zones and Public Shelters for 2022 and officials urge residents to learn their flood zone, map information and evacuation zone.

Flooding

Flood risk doesn’t stop at a line on a map. Flooding can happen for a variety of reasons, not just storms. Knowing your Flood zone and other flood map information (such as the predicted level of flood waters) may impact your flood insurance premium rates and how you build or renovate. Contact your community’s floodplain manager to learn your flood hazard, flood zone and flood map information as well as your evacuation zone.

Your flooding risk is based on a number of factors, including: Property location, elevation, the construction and age of a building as well as the proximity to waterways. However, flood risks can change over time due to various circumstances, such as changes in nearby ground elevations or weather patterns. It’s important to stay up to date on your flood zone.


Follow this link to see an overview of the special flood hazard areas in unincorporated Lee County as well as links to contact your jurisdiction.


”100 year flood” Misconception

You may have heard the term “100-Year Flood Zone” and think that a flood like that only happens once in every one hundred years. Unfortunately, that old adage is untrue. The SFHA (Special Flood Hazard Area) is an area that has a one-percent chance, or a one-in-one hundred chance, of a flood happening in any given year. That means a “One Hundred Year” flood could happen this year, and again next year. It has nothing to do with calendar years. The term “100-year flood” is now referred to as the “1% annual chance” flood.

Contact your community Floodplain Manager

Your local government’s floodplain managers are a critical link to maintaining accurate floodplain information. It’s important to stay in the know by using local government information created to help you know where you stand. Floodplain managers can provide or confirm important flood map information that is required for accurate flood insurance policies. Many jurisdictions may provide a FIRM (Flood Insurance Rate Map) community letter.

Go here to find your municipality: https://www.leegov.com/dcd/Documents/FloodMapping/FindMyMunicipality.pdf

-Bonita Springs 239-949-6262

-Cape Coral 239-574-0553

-Estero 239-221-5036

-Fort Myers 239-321-7925

-Fort Myers Beach 239-765-0202

-Sanibel 239-472-3700

-Unincorporated Lee 239-533-8948

The term “unincorporated” means any area that has not been incorporated into a city limit, basically anything outside of a city limit.

Flood Zone vs. Evacuation Zone

• Flood zones are used to determine flood risk, flood insurance rates and some building requirements.

• Evacuation zones are used during storm events to predict overland wave surge and are used for prioritizing evacuations.

• When a hurricane is approaching, it’s time to know your Evacuation zone.

• Follow this link for more information.

Additional information and links:

• Learn about historic flooding in Lee County in FEMA’s 2018 Flood Insurance Rate Study and 2014 Coastal Discovery Report www.leegov.com/dcd/Documents/FloodMapping/FEMAFloodZones/2014DiscoveryReport.pdf 

• For properties in unincorporated Lee County only, look up your flood zone: http://leegis.leegov.com/floodzones

• FEMA updated information about the principal flooding problems in unincorporated Lee County as part of its 2014 Coastal Discovery Report, which can be viewed at www.leegov.com/dcd/flood, along with the detailed flooding history in FEMA’s 2018 Flood Insurance Study for Lee County.

• Go to https://www.leegov.com/irma to learn how the County is recovering, planning for and mitigating against future flood hazards.

• Lee County joined the National Flood Insurance Program in 1984. As a result: Lee County property owners may purchase flood insurance policies through the NFIP, FEMA will provide disaster assistance in Lee County in the event of a federally declared disaster and FEMA routinely assesses the risk of flooding here and updates Flood Insurance Risk Maps. In addition, Lee County and all of its municipalities participate in the NFIP’s Community Rating System, which provides a discount in the cost of the flood insurance policy. More information is available online – https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance and www.floodsmart.gov

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Shelters

Be Advised: NOT all shelters will be open for every event. The opening of shelters is dependent upon the nature of each specific event.

Please Note: Pet-friendly sheltering will be available; announcements will be made at the time.

Know Your Evacuation Zone:

Visit our www.LeeEOC.com to find out what zone you are in.

1. Click on “Know My Evacuation Zone” in the navigation bar

2. Click the Find My Evacuation Zone link

3. Enter your address in the search bar

Here is the list:

2022 Evacuation Zones and Public Shelters

EMERGENCY PUBLIC SHELTERS

Cape Coral

1. Island Coast High School – 2125 DeNavarra Pkwy

Estero

2. Estero Recreation Center – 9200 CorkscrewPalm Blvd

3. Hertz Arena – 11000 Everblades Pkwy

Fort Myers

4. Dunbar High School – 3800 Edison Ave

5. Gateway High School – 13820 Griffin Dr

6. South Fort Myers High School – 14020 Plantation Blvd

7. Treeline Elementary School – 10900 Treeline Ave

Lehigh Acres

8. East Lee County High School – 715 Thomas- Sherwin Ave

9. Harns Marsh Elementary School – 1800 Unice Ave N

10. Harns Marsh Middle School – 1820 Unice Ave N

11. Mirror Lakes Elementary School – 525 Charwood Ave

12. Tortuga Preserve Elementary School – 1711 Gunnery Rd

13. Varsity Lakes Middle School – 801 Gunnery Rd

14. Veterans Park Recreation Center – 49 Homestead Rd

North Fort Myers

15. North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts – 1856 Arts Way

16. North Fort Myers Recreation Center – 2000 N Recreation Park Way

San Carlos

17. Alico Arena – 12181 FGCU Lake Pkwy

Tice

18.Manatee Elementary School – 5301 Tice St

19. Oak Hammock Middle School – 5321 Tice St

For the most recent public shelter list, www.LeeEOC.com.

Source: Lee County Emergency Management