JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Nearly seven years after Hurricane Irma brought devastating flooding to Katherine Ward’s Jacksonville home, she’s still dealing with the aftermath.
She lives on the city's Westside, by Hyde Park Golf Course on Cedar River.
“Our river rose, I think it was a total of seven and a half feet above its normal high tide. And so, 42 inches came inside of our home," she said.
Her home was deemed substantially damaged.
“That substantial damage designation then means I can't repair my house or do any repairs, I have to tear down and rebuild out of the floodplain. And so that happened to us. But then we did not get enough money from the insurance to do that or from FEMA, our flood policy,” Ward explained.
She turned the to the Rebuild Florida program for help in 2018, but it wasn't until January 2024 that the work finally began to build the new home she was promised.
“We have never even been in our new home. Our new home has been built. According to the City of Jacksonville, the certificate of occupancy and the certificate of completion was done on June 28. But we have still not been in our home. We have not been provided any information,” Ward told First Coast News in late July.
On Monday, she says she found out from the contractor she could finally get the keys to her new house.
“This morning, he texted me first and gave me the code to get inside the door, and then said I could have access to the house. The contractor believes they're 100% finished and that they're done. So, I told him that I was still waiting on quality control too, and that it was my belief that it's not finished,” Ward said.
She says the Rebuild Florida Irma program has been a “nightmare.”
“I have cried more since the hurricane over the program, and over being misunderstood, and not being heard. And by disrespect,” Ward said. “And the entire system has been nothing but pain and suffering, and more devastating the hurricane itself and losing everything we owned.”
FloridaCommerce allocated $480 million dollar it received from the federal government for the Hurricane Irma Housing Repair and Replacement Program. The state awarded IEM a $252 million contract to administer the program. And despite the Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly telling us all of the homes would be finished by July 2024, IEM's contract has ended leaving homeowners who are still waiting for answers uncertain of what will happen next.
“If this was a business, and it was run like this, this would not be acceptable,” Ward said.
A spokesperson for IEM sent First Coast News a statement saying, "IEM's program management team has been closely collaborating with FloridaCommerce to ensure a smooth transition as our contract ends on July 25, 2024. We are proud to have served the people and families of Florida, and to have fulfilled our contractual obligations."
Ward is frustrated that she has to start over with a new case manager.
“Now they've hired this new company. She called me and she introduced herself, but she knew nothing about my case,” Ward said.
She says her case manager emailed her on July 25 to say she had received a limestone rock driveway, but Ward says that is not the case.
“We used to have a car port. And so, in place of that car port, they just put a two-car slab, concrete slab right in front of the house for us to park on. But leading up to that, I have a 225 ft driveway that used to be concrete prior to demolition,” Ward said. “During demolition, they brought in a bunch of dirt and filled in that area to drive on to get to the house. But then they left that dirt there.”
She thinks changes need to be made to hold the contractors accountable and have more oversight of taxpayer money.
“They were told I was given a rock driveway in place of my concrete driveway. I have mud, I have no rock. Why are these things happening? Why isn't somebody from the Department of Commerce before they pay an invoice calling the homeowner saying 'was this work done? And is it complete?' That would have closed the gap on the problems. But there was a huge gap in us calling our IEM representative who then supposedly called Department of Commerce, who never got back to IEM, so they couldn't get back to us. So, we would keep doing this game over and over of trying to reach out saying this is not done. This is not done. Help us help us.”
For now, her new house sits empty as she waits for answers.
“I believe my home is uninsured right now. I've asked IEM and now the subsequent company and the Department of Commerce, who's insuring my home right now,” Ward said. “I'm still waiting on the program to send me closing documents. Nothing has been provided at this time to tell me what the next steps are, to tell me how they're going to close out my case, to tell me how they're going to deal with the unresolved issues that I still have that I show are in the scope of work but are incomplete.”
In May FloridaCommerce Secretary Alex Kelly told First Coast News all of the homes in the Irma program would be finished by July when IEM's contract ends. That deadline was not met.
A spokesperson for FloridaCommerce told us in July, "250 homes are currently in the construction or pre-construction phase of the program. All of these homes are expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year."
We have sent multiple emails to FloridaCommerce asking about the Rebuild Florida program now that its contract with IEM has ended. We also requested another interview with the Commerce secretary. We are still waiting for answers.
If you have a news tip about the Rebuild Florida program email hcrawford2@firstcoastnews.com.
You can read all of the stories in our investigation so far by clicking here.