FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
              (239) 335-2777

LEE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS DECLARE A STATE OF LOCAL EMERGENCY

Fort Myers, FL (September 29, 2003) The Board of County Commissioners declared a State of Local Emergency at an 11:15 a.m. emergency meeting today due to concerns about flooding, especially sheet flow from Charlotte County and the Cecil Webb Wildlife Management Area.

The county is under a flood watch until 5 p.m. and experienced significant rain over the weekend, with 2-to-4 inches expected today.

The State of Local Emergency is COUNTYWIDE.

The major impact of this declaration is the release of public money from the Lee County All Hazards Fund for limited use in making emergency repairs to private roads. Authorization to repair private roads is limited to providing "emergency access".

By emergency access we mean repairing roads to the extent necessary to make them passable for emergency vehicles (fire, ambulance and law enforcement). Fire and Lee County Emergency Management officials are working closely with County Department of Transportation staff to assess and repair roads based on "life safety" needs and priorities.

Please recognize that these are limited repairs made for very specific life safety reasons. Roads that are adequate for emergency vehicles may still be difficult to travel in passenger vehicles.

Below is the script of a release sent by the Lee County Emergency Operations Center earlier today:

The National Weather Service forecasts that we can expect 2 to 4 inches of rain this afternoon and tonight, with isolated amounts of 5 to 6 inches in Lee County.

On Tuesday, the majority of the rainfall will be to our north, however we can still expect from 1 to 2 inches and isolated amounts of 3 to 4 inches of rainfall.

On Wednesday, the NWS has forecast a return to heavy rainfall in our area from the north.

This weather is due to a stalled cold front over our area and deep tropical moisture from the south.

NWS has issued a FLOOD WATCH for Lee County until 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, October 1, 2003.

HEAVY RAIN AND FLOODING POSSIBLE THROUGH WEDNESDAY

A FLOOD WATCH MEANS FLOODING IS POSSIBLE TODAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

RESIDENTS LIVING ALONG RIVERS AND FASTER FLOWING STREAMS AS WELL AS THOSE LIVING IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS SHOULD REMAIN ALERT TO ANY RAPID RISES IN WATER LEVELS AND BE READY TO MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED.