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Fellow Islanders,
As I am sure you are well aware by now, electrical service was restored to Upper Captiva yesterday afternoon. LCEC apparently received some additional help from out of state crews and they worked 24/7 to restore the power grid. This was somewhat unexpected and even caught the LCEC representative with whom I have been coordinating by surprise as she had given a target date of 11/15 as late as Friday. To quell the rumor going around, the generators that were recently brought out to our Island and are at The Island Club of North Captiva are NOT providing power to our homes. The power is being supplied by LCEC and is permanent, although we may have some temporary outages as they continue to make adjustments and bring additional customers online.
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If your home does not currently have power, please note that LCEC has determined that a danger exists if your home is energized. This is based on their observations from the exterior of your home for such things as broken meters, exposed wiring, broken pipes, etc. Please contact a licensed electrician and/or plumber right away so that the necessary repairs can be done. If you are a member of one of our Island clubs, please contact them directly.
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We were recently contacted by the Office of the Lee County Property Appraiser in connection with our tax bills, which were due to be mailed out a few weeks ago. The process was delayed due to Ian. Apparently, if your home is deemed to be "uninhabitable", you are entitled to tax relief on your non-ad valorem taxes and your tax bill will be adjusted accordingly.
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Fire Chief Martin and his staff have conducted a survey of our Island homes over the past few days and determined that, very fortunately, none meet the criteria established by the Property Appraiser's Office for being declared uninhabitable, namely (a) house completely or substantially destroyed, (b) all or most of roof missing and/or (c) one or more exterior walls missing.
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However, there may be some homes that have other damage that render them currently uninhabitable. The survey was conducted from the access-way in front of our homes and no entry was made onto private property. Therefore, it is possible that some homes may have substantial interior damage including structural, electric and/or plumbing that lead the homeowner to believe that their home is uninhabitable.
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If you feel that your home is currently uninhabitable due to damage from Hurricane Ian, please visit HurricaneUpdate@Leepa.org and you will find information on how to file your application. Obviously you will need reports from licensed professionals, but you will need these anyway for your insurance claims.
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I hope that this information is helpful to all, and that none of you need to use it.
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Thank you for your patience throughout these trying times. Each day will be a little better,
Bill Byrnes, Chairman
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UCF&RD Board of Fire Commissioners
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