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Jacksonville To Receive $1M To Help With Hurricane, Disaster Preparedness

Rockefeller Foundation

The city of Jacksonville plans to participate in the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program.

Mayor Lenny Curry plans to finalize the distinction applied for by former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative is an effort to identify cities that show great resilience in the face of economic, social and environmental catastrophes, but may need some extra help to keep it up.

Curry’s spokesman Bill Spann says the new mayor is fully committed to the project.

“We are absolutely moving forward,” Spann said. “There’s some technical hurdles that have to be gone through with City Council, but those are on the way.”

It was unclear whether plans would move forward after Brown’s reelection defeat in May. The 100 Resilient Cities Initiative will provide Jacksonville with a $1 million grant to establish the position of Chief Resilience Officer, who will connect the city with the initiative’s business partners to help address challenges like sea-level rise and hurricane preparedness.

Ryan Benk is a former WJCT News reporter who joined the station in 2015 after working as a news researcher and reporter for NPR affiliate WFSU in Tallahassee.