More than 68,000 Cape Coral residents will receive a letter from the City of Cape Coral regarding its effort with working with FEMA to retain a 25% discount for the National Flood Insurance Program.

More than 100,000 letters are being sent to the National Flood Insurance Program policyholders throughout Lee County. More than 67,000 letters will be sent to unincorporated Lee County residents, and more than 5,000 to the Town of Fort Myers Beach residents.

“I sincerely appreciate these community leaders taking this matter seriously, and all the work they’ve done to improve identified deficiencies,” FEMA Region 4 Regional Administrator Robert Samaan said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure everyone is building back stronger and more resilient against future floods and disasters.”

Last month, the city told homeowners they will continue to receive their 25% discount on federal flood insurance policies as FEMA will not retrograde the city’s Community Rating System classification – at least not for now.

FEMA gave the city, as well as Lee County and Fort Myers Beach, until Nov. 18 to continue efforts to meet what FEMA says are “outstanding compliance issues.”

“FEMA found that 90% of Cape Coral’s properties they identified are complete or currently in the code enforcement process,” Mayor John Gunter said at a July press conference. “FEMA also applauded the hard work and dedication of city staff and meeting the floodplain management standards despite recovering from Hurricane Ian. FEMA acknowledged the city’s improvements over the last two months and has identified potential areas of improvement.”

FEMA has worked with Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers Beach, and unincorporated Lee County over the past several weeks evaluating their compliance with the program, as well as addressing any identified issues.

According to the FEMA notice “All flood insurance policy holders will receive a letter as an advance notice that if their community is unable to correct any identified deficiencies or violations, it will be placed on probation from the National Flood Insurance Program. If this occurs in a community, policy holders will see a $50 probation surcharge for at least one year beginning Nov. 18, 2024. Additionally, as of April 1, 2025, policy holders would lose any discounts they are receiving through the Community Rating System.”

The release further states that residents are encouraged to reach out to their local floodplain administrator, or community established websites if they have any unpermitted repair work from Hurricane Ian to obtain additional information about the process.