Associated Press
President Donald Trump has approved a disaster declaration for Florida in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.
A White House statement says the declaration means that federal funding is now available to eligible state and local governments, as well as certain nonprofits.
The statement says funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and repairs or replacements of facilities damaged by the storm between Aug. 28 and Sept. 9.
Eligible counties include Brevard, Duval, Flagler, Indian River, Martin, Nassau, Osceola, Palm Beach, Putnam, Seminole, St. Johns and St. Lucie.
It says similar funding also is available statewide for hazard mitigation measures.
Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 1 became the most intense to hit the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. It ended up sitting over Grand Bahama for roughly 24 hours.
But when the storm moved, it shifted course in a northerly direction and it ultimately rode coast of Florida without making landfall. The event did cause power outages and evacuations in the Sunshine State.
At points, forecast paths of the storm has Dorian striking several parts of the state’s east coast, and Gov. Ron DeSantis had declared a state of emergency.
“I think if you look at the different forecasts, you see potential major impacts for places in South Florida, potentially going all the way up the coast of Florida,” DeSantis said at the time.
“Some forecasts have it going through the center of the state, similar to kind of what Irma did in terms of going up the middle. And you still have some forecasts that say it’s going to go across the state and end up in the Gulf of Mexico.”
DeSantis in August asked Trump for a pre-landfall emergency declaration. That was supported by the Congressional Delegation.
There’s been post-storm discuss about federal reimbursement for those counties in south Florida that prepared for the storm but ultimately were not impacted.
