In January 2020, FEMA held Community meetings throughout the Keys, offering the public an opportunity to view and comment in person on the proposed preliminary FIRMS. In normal times, there would have been a 90-day period during which communities could file an appeal to the proposed maps. Since 2020 was not “normal times,” Monroe County and the municipalities were allowed an extension to file appeals, and in the summer of 2021 both the City of Key West and Monroe County filed appeals. The Monroe County appeal included the other municipalities.
This July, FEMA responded to the appeals with a request for additional information to support the appeals. The letter received from FEMA stated the following:
“Based on a review of data submitted from Monroe County, the City of Key West, the City of Marathon, and the Village of Islamorada, FEMA will accept the updates included in the Monroe County-specific submittal. These revisions will be applicable within the entirety of Monroe County, FL. The model revisions will not be applicable to nearby counties, as the submittal package did not revise the entire South Florida regional storm surge study.
“To complete the documentation package necessary for Intermediate Data Submittal (IDS) 1-3, additional data and documentation is required and is outlined in the requests…”
The City of Key West and Monroe County have again hired Woods Hole Group, who did the work on the initial appeal, to complete the tasks as requested by FEMA. FIRM’s Flood Map Task Force will again be offering support on behalf of the City of Key West.
The additional information requested by FEMA mainly concerns the addition of Hurricane Irma data and the exclusion of other storm data. Hurricane Irma had not occurred when FEMA developed its preliminary maps, and since the study included Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, Woods Hole Group sought to eliminate storms that did not impact Monroe County.
So what does this do to the timeline?
Woods Hole Group has another 90-day appeal period to provide FEMA with the information requested. This will trigger FEMA to develop another set of preliminary maps for community review. We are essentially reset back to 2020.
Until the preliminary maps are fully adopted, the Flood Insurance Rate Maps from 2005 are the effective maps for Monroe County.
If the appeal is successful, it will save Key West property owners over $5 million in additional annual flood insurance premiums vs. having the maps adopted without challenge. More information about the maps and the appeal can be found on the City of Key West website and Monroe County’s website.
