Yes We Can

They said that it couldn’t be done, elevating a 1979 concrete block structure (CBS) home on Isles of Capri. But BreAnne Yacono would hear none of it. After Hurricane Ian brought about two and a half feet of flooding and major loss to her family's home, she elected to elevate the home she has lived in her entire life.

Yacono, along with husband Nick, is raising three children in the home that she once shared with her father. It is the first home elevated on Isles of Capri and the first home elevated in Collier County by Davie Shoring, a home elevating company from Louisiana that now has a base in nearby Arcadia. Yacono believes it might also be the first CBS home in Collier County to be elevated.

“If I'm correct, it’s possibly the first,” Yacono said. "I don't want to say that out of place, but I want to say that's a high possibility. It's definitely the first with this HMGP grant that was almost impossible to obtain.”

The HMGP grant Yacono refers to is the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. It provides post-disaster funding to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to implement long-term actions that reduce or eliminate future risk to life and property from natural hazards. Individuals cannot apply directly for the grant, but local governments can apply on their behalf.

“Not only were we possibly the first concrete home in Collier County to be elevated,” Yacono said, "I was awarded a FEMA grant and that's what took three years. They're reimbursing 75 percent of the project. No homeowner has ever been awarded that in Collier County."

Someone suggested to Yacono that she pursue the grant.

"I just started staying up at night when my home was flooded, the kids were sleeping, and I was researching and calling and leaving messages to everybody in Collier County."

Finally, she found someone willing to help.

“One gentleman, William Lang, called me back. He's the one that told me it was possible."

Lang is the staff liaison and floodplain coordinator for the Floodplain Management Planning Committee (FMPC). FMPC members are appointed by the County Manager and include up to eight members of the public, incorporated municipalities within Collier County, and Collier County staff.

"Collier County was supposed to help me with it,” Yacono said. "The County manager, everybody that I tried approaching that should have helped me with this didn’t. Who ended up stepping up and helping me was the Greater Naples Fire District. I had to get a government entity to support me.”

Yacono became a regular at the Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) meetings.

"I just went to all these LMS meetings,” she said. "I went to one meeting and realized I was in the right place and then I started learning. And it sounded like Collier County should have been my supporter. William Lang was the only gentleman who did help me and continued to just give me knowledge and talk to me for hours on end, and kind of help me through that. So that was pretty interesting. And then that led me to get a grant consultant, because I couldn't figure this out myself.”

Yacono worked with iParametrics and Shanti Smith-Copeland, a management and consulting firm that specializes in emergency management, disaster recovery, security risk management, and grant strategy.

“iParametrics and Shanti is the one that kind of helped lead the way. It's been absolutely amazing. It took several years. It was probably a 68-page agreement and contract that I have with the state.”

Yacono said local contractors weren’t on board with her decision to elevate her home.

"I just wanted to see what I could do,” she said. "And that's what led me to the research. And it was funny calling contractors around here. Everybody said it wasn't possible. They said we couldn't do it. It was really interesting at the Capri Community Center. I think it was probably last March before everybody went home for the summer. We had a big meeting on what everybody was going to do to flood prep. And everybody's ideas were funny and great. We just shared what we tried, what worked, what didn't work. And with Hurricane Milton, my husband tried silicone caulking all doors and all windows. We still can't open our windows. That didn't work. People also explained how they made flood gates. And then I shared what I was doing. People stood up and almost told me it wasn't possible. And I told them, ‘Well, I'm going to give it a try, within the next two months it'll be starting.' Now people come by and they're like, ‘You're right.'”

Yacono knew going in that it was possible that the elevation project could fail.

“They said the likelihood of it working, they felt was pretty much 100 percent,” she said. "But they do say things happen. They said they would normally know once that first pop out of the ground happens.”

Yacono was willing to take the chance.

“At this point it was either we try to save this home by raising it or sell it and then go where? The prices of homes and property are out of our price range. I love this lot. This was one of our more feasible options. And just the history of the home, we've done so much work to it.

And it was the home she shared with her father who was killed in a construction accident when she was just 16. "It was in 2005,” she said. "He was 53. He fell off a screen cage enclosure. That was a tough one. He was my primary parent. It was kind of me and him. And I think that's why a big piece of me was not ready to sell this."