Mound House closes underground exhibit as town pursues FEMA mitigation, state feasibility grant and installs murals

The Mound House museum in Fort Myers Beach has closed its underground exhibit while town staff seek mitigation options after repeated flooding and humidity damage, staff said during a town meeting update.

Town staff told the meeting that a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) site inspection of the underground exhibit is complete and that FEMA will produce a mitigation plan for the site. Town staff said they have removed PVC mural panels from the underground to prevent further damage and temporarily installed five of the seven mural panels on the side of the museum’s kayak shed so the public can still see them.

The move to remove and reinstall the mural panels was described as a protective measure while staff await further assessments. Adam, a Mound House staff member, said the panels were warping from humidity and flooding and that the kayak‑shed installation “lines up perfectly, where the horizon actually matches the real horizon of the water,” giving visitors a new interpretive view of the Colusa Village…