It's still unclear how many in Collier will receive or where the FEMA will send the recreational vehicles, almost a month after Irma destroyed more than 100 homes in Everglades City, Immokalee and other rural and coastal corners of the county.
FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers will provide RVs, what FEMA calls traveling trailers, in batches, said Dan Summers, director of the county emergency operations center.
"This won't be like after Hurricane Charley, where they set up a huge wave of 100 trailers at once," Summers said.
The RVs are expected to be brought down in groups of about 20, he said. They'll be staged at the Naples airport until FEMA can qualify residents and decide where to put them.
"The good news is that we've been told the inventory has already been bought and, as the need arises, they have the ability to purchase more quickly off the lot and get them here without any lag time," Summers said.
RVs might prove to be more flexible than traditional FEMA trailers. They can easily be hooked up to water, sewer and power lines.
Many in Everglades City and Collier County hope they can be parked in the driveway or front lawn of a destroyed home. But that remains to be seen, Summers said.
"We just don’t know the limitations on where these can go yet," he said. "They may have to be put in an existing RV park or may not be allowed in a flood zone."
The program's parameters will be outlined in the next few days, he said.
Everglades City wasted no time in preparing for the RVs. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow RVs to be parked in front lawns for up to a year as people repair or rebuild their homes.
At least 70 families are going to need them in the small fishing town and its neighboring communities of Chokoloskee and Plantation Island, Mayor Howie Grimm said.
That includes people who don't think they need temporary housing but might find they do, Grimm said.
"They're trying to save their places, but I think they're going to find out with this 50 percent rule that they can't," Grimm said.
FEMA has a rule that if repairs cost a homeowner more than 50 percent of the value of the home, that home loses its grandfathered status and has to be brought up to date with all elevation, flood-proofing and hurricane codes. With some of the trailers in Everglades City valued at about $36,000, it won't take much for many with flood or wind damage to hit that 50 percent mark, Grimm said.
"I think a lot of people are going to find out that they need a new place," he said.
FEMA spokesman Mike Wade said he couldn't say when the first batch of RVs will arrive or how many residents have qualified for them.
Another tropical depression was brewing in the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday and was forecast to possibly hit the central Gulf Coast of Florida on Sunday, possibly as a Category 1 hurricane. Consequently, the deployment of the RVs might be delayed, Wade said.
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