Speaking in Jacksonville on Tuesday, Florida’s Chief Resilience Officer, Julia Nesheiwat, said the state has secured more than $1.4 billion in funding for communities recovering from recent hurricanes and nearly $900 million to help lessen the impact of future storms.
According to Nesheiwat, the Florida Division of Emergency Management has already distributed more than $944 million for Hurricane Irma, more than $461 million for Hurricane Michael, and more than $60 million for Hurricanes Matthew and Hermine to help communities recover.
.@JuliaNesheiwat will be talking about recovery and mitigation funding at today's Southeast Disaster & Caribbean Recovery Partnership meeting.
— Brendan Rivers (@BrendanRivers) January 28, 2020
Federal agencies have also granted Florida 100% funding for the first 45 days of Hurricane Michael recovery, compared to the five days that the state was initially granted.
In terms of mitigation funding, more than $100 million has already been obligated for projects in response to Hurricane Irma and an additional $469 million is expected to be distributed. As of November, $310 million in federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Funding has been made available in response to Hurricane Michael.
“As the Chief Resilience Officer for the state, I’m very interested in using some of that federal mitigation funding to really improve our community resilience,” Nesheiwat said.
Related: Florida’s First-Ever State Resilience Officer Is In Listening Mode
Nesheiwat says Florida is ground zero for sea level rise.
She spoke on Tuesday at a meeting of disaster recovery professionals from the Southeast and Caribbean.
Brendan Rivers can be reached at brivers@wjct.org, 904-358-6396 or on Twitter at @BrendanRivers.
