Florida city's tone-deaf demand for permits after hurricane gets obliterated on social media: 'Profiting off the tragedy'

A cheery reminder from a city in Florida to residents that they need a permit in order to fix their fences was torched on social media.

The bizarre message was posted by city officials on the Facebook page for Casselberry, a suburb of Orlando with about 29,000 residents.

'They’re profiting off the tragedy. They can take their permit and shove it.'

"Building permits are required to be obtained for any fence repairs of TWO (2) or more panels and any home repairs due to the storm," the post read. "You must get a permit before starting your repairs."

The post was immediately excoriated on Facebook by commenters who thought it was far too soon for the city to be piling on to the victims of the damaging hurricane.

"Why would you post about this as people are recovering? This is extremely untimely and insensitive. A bad look for the City of Casselberry. Now is not the time. What a shame," read one comment.

"Less than 10% of people are getting a permit.. a storm just hit, they’re getting it done as soon as possible.. not waiting to be approved, and taxed again to fix it.. not a good look for yall," read another comment.

Image Source: Facebook City of Casselberry screenshot

Screenshots of the post made it to the X platform, where the backlash really ramped up.

"Without government, who would threaten to punish you for repairing your own fence after a storm?" responded activist Spike Cohen.

"Government is often no different than the scam artists trying to take advantage of people in tragic times," read another response.

"They’re profiting off the tragedy. They can take their permit and shove it," replied one critic.

"Imagine having to repair 3 panels of fencing and you requiring a family that just survived a hurricane to ask your permission and pay for a permit. GTFO," said another detractor.

"How much more despicable can you get?" asked another user.

Officials say there have been 16 deaths in Florida tied to Hurricane Milton. About 238 people have died from Hurricane Helene, though many hundreds are still missing. A volunteer who is keeping track of missing people reports says his count is 1,412 missing people.

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