PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The permitting process has been one of the biggest complaints when it comes to hurricane recovery.

Some are still waiting on permits to be approved, while others don’t even know where they are in the process, or if their application has even been reviewed.

What You Need To Know

  • Permitting is still a sore point for many when it comes to rebuilding after hurricanes Helene and Milton

  • Mark and Mary Anne Casci don't quality for FEMA assistance and had to get their rental property reappraised to meet the 50/50 rule

  • The Cascis' other home is at a standstill though, and they hope that getting it reappraised, it will meet the 50/50 rule

If the bright peach house with the two-car garage just a block from the beach doesn’t catch your eye, Mark Casci says the view from inside of the row of permits taped on the front window of the home should.

“We really had a celebration two weeks ago with our permit. In fact, I asked the people as we were going out if there’s a bell we could ring,” Casci said.

He’s not ringing any bells just yet.

“We did move all the electrical that had been submerged in water and elected to move it all up to four feet,” he said.

There’s so much work still left to be done in the place his family has called their home away from home for the last 40 years.

“Our daughter was two years old when we first bought the place at a time when we couldn’t afford to stay here. So, we had a motor home that we had pulled down in the yard and our kids really knew nothing else than Florida for vacations and we had both units rented,” Casci said.

Pictures show how the front and the back units of their rental property were destroyed by storm surge from Hurricane Helene.

Casci, and his wife Mary Anne, are snowbirds from Minnesota who don’t qualify for FEMA assistance. So, when they got that dreaded substantial damage letter that didn’t include the percentage of damage, they took matters into their own hands.

“Fortunately, with our outside appraisal, we met the 50/50 rule and eventually got our permit, so not an issue in the long run, just initially a shock that we didn’t have that number of what the damage was,” he said.

After months, hiring their own appraiser and sitting inside the building department for hours, waiting on answers, they got their permits from Madeira Beach. But the same can’t be said just a couple miles away at the home they planned to retire in on Redington Beach.

That permitting process is at a standstill.

Casci said they’ve flooded three times in five years at their waterfront Redington Beach home.

“When we walked in here, in fact, the water line is gone now, but it was approximately at this level here,” he said. “Well, the furniture that was in here floated into another room.”

He said they don’t think the information they have at the moment is correct.

“As of now, this letter basically tells us, tear down or raise up,” he said.

That’s not something the couple says they’re prepared to do, so they had this home appraised, too. They’re hoping it would bring them closer to a solution and under 50%. But so far, they haven’t heard anything, and it’s been months.

“Give us the facts we need to make the decision,” he said.

Redington Shores is handling the permitting process for Redington Beach and officials there say they can’t give an estimate about how long it will take for permits to be granted.

For the Cascis, this means two homes and two very different possibilities for the future of their rental property and their dream home.