CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Almost three months after Hurricane Helene, a small Citrus County fishing village is bracing for a different kind of storm.
Normally paradise, Ozello is getting hit by a surge of uncertainty, a downpour of questions, and a whirlwind of worry because of FEMA’s dreaded 50% rule.
“I’m very worried about it. It concerns me,” said Aaron Hefty, a charter boat captain who lives in Ozello.
Last week, roughly a hundred homeowners like Hefty got a letter in the mail.
In black and white, it delivers a message as menacing as a hurricane. The message could change lives and flatten homes.
Under FEMA’s 50% rule, the Citrus County Government inspected 2,000 homes that were damaged during Hurricane Helene. It determined about a hundred of them, primarily in coastal areas like Ozello and Homosassa, were “substantially damaged.”
The determination leaves homeowners like Hefty with three choices: demolish their homes, elevate them, or relocate them.
To Hefty, it’s an impossible choice.
He worries for his neighbors, too, including a couple who are in their late eighties.
“Where are they going?” Hefty asked. “Where are these people going to live out their lives?”
Hefty, who serves as Ozello’s unofficial mayor, is ready for a fight. He’s ready to push back against the “substantially damaged” determinations, some of which were made by inspectors who did not enter the homes they were inspecting.
“Somebody has to stand up and initiate the situation and be the voice,” Hefty said. “I would say out of the 40-50 letters that we received in Ozello, maybe ten of them are substantially damaged.”
However, there’s no guarantee he will win the fight against a force so powerful. The letters could change his community forever.
There is a final option available to homeowners who received letters from Citrus County. They can appeal the substantial damage determination.
Appeal instructions can be found in the image below.
