What is the risk of flooding in Lee County?
In Lee County, flood risk generally results from tropical storms, hurricanes and related coastal wave surges or from sheet flow. Sheet flow is the natural drainage of surface water south through the Florida peninsula to the Everglades.
Formal assessment of the flood risk in Lee County has been conducted by FEMA for flood mapping analysis and by the Lee County Public Safety Department as part of its Local Mitigation Strategy.
FEMA published information about the principal flooding problems here as part of its 2008 Flood Insurance Study and in its 2014 Coastal Discovery Report, which are both available online at www.leegov.com/dcd/floodmaps. FEMA points out that not all storms which pass close to the area produce either coastal storm surge or flooding along rivers, creeks, canals and other interior waterways. In the past 50 years, Lee County has been included in 14 federally declared disasters. The most recent was Tropical Storm Debby in July 2012. Not all of these events result in flooding and significant flood insurance claims.
In the past 20 years, there have been 28 flood occurrences which resulted in flood claims from property damage in Lee County and its municipalities. Of those, eight were for claims of $20,000 or less. The incident with the highest value of claims occurred in the unusually high rainy season of 1995, which resulted in flood insurance claims throughout Lee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties valued at $10 million.
How will I be notified of a flood-related disaster?
In addition to traditional communication through mass media, Lee County Emergency Management will notify residents individually of dangerous flooding through multiple methods of outreach, including:
CodeRed – A free telephone, text or email service.
LeeEvac for iPhone – A free app for Apple devices that pushes evacuation notifications in real time during emergencies and which also allows users to search for evacuation zones by street address.
LeeEvac for Android – A free app for Android devices that pushes evacuation notifications in real time during emergencies and which also allows users to search for evacuation zones by street address or by GPS.
Facebook – This Facebook page posts real-time updates about emergency conditions and always offers general preparedness information.
Twitter – There are two Twitter accounts: @LeeEOC - offers purely emergency information;
@LCEMFL - offers also includes general and preparedness information.
IPAWS – Lee County Public Safety is a FEMA Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) Alerting Authority. We can utilize the IPAWS to alert and warn Lee County residents and visitors about serious emergencies through various means, including the Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio. You can learn more about participating in all of these at www.LeeEOC.com.
How does Lee County address flood emergencies?
Lee County joined the National Flood Insurance Program in 1984. As a result:
- Property owners here may purchase flood insurance policies through the NFIP.
- FEMA will provide disaster assistance here in the event of a federally declared disaster.
- 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.