Ryan Nicol
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that Miami-Dade County would receive an additional $78.1 million to help pay for recovery efforts following Hurricane Irma.
That money will come from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM). It adds onto nearly $120 million approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in late May.
“Florida has been severely impacted over the past several years due to devastating hurricanes,” Lt. Governor Jeanette Nuñez said.
“This critical funding provided by FEMA and FDEM is imperative for continued recovery efforts in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Irma.”
“Today, we are taking yet another significant step forward for hurricane recovery in Florida,” DeSantis added.
“When I took office, I made a commitment that Northwest Florida and every community impacted by recent hurricanes will make a full recovery. I’m proud that today we are continuing to honor that commitment by providing this funding to Miami-Dade County.”
DeSantis has also pushed for funding to help areas in the Panhandle ravaged by Hurricane Michael. Though Irma preceded Michael by about a year, striking in Sept. 2017, it is still causing problems in South Florida.
Over Irma’s duration, evacuation orders were issued for areas covering 5.6 million people. It caused at least $50 billion in damage.
FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz also issued a statement explaining the need for further funding.
“When I took over at FDEM, Governor DeSantis directed me to speed up the reimbursement process to make sure that Florida counties and cities received the money they are owed,” Moskowitz said.
“Cities and counties have waited too long to replenish their reserves or repay loans from Irma but with today’s announcement we are showing that the Governor’s policies are working and funding has been accelerated.”
One comment
JD
June 4, 2019 at 8:17 pm
One can only hope that a condition of payment will be fluency in English.
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