My Safe Florida Home short on money already
The 2024 hurricane season gets an even stormier forecast, Florida suspends further applications to the My Safe Florida Home program, and the Resilient Florida application portal is open for business. It’s all in this week’s Disaster Management Digest.
Beryl and Beyond: Experts at Colorado State University upped the forecast for the 2024 hurricane season, adding two named storms and a major hurricane only days after the deadly Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc in Texas. The university’s Department of Atmospheric Science said the slightly increased projections were necessary amid almost record-breaking heat in the Atlantic and Caribbean and a lack of wind shear that usually cuts forming hurricanes down to size. “Extremely warm sea surface temperatures provide a much more conducive dynamic and thermodynamic environment for hurricane formation and intensification,” the department said in an online post. The added named storms bring the 2024 season up to a total of 25, and forecasted hurricanes up to 12 total with 5 of those being labeled as “major,” citing “above-normal confidence” in these projections. NOAA and the experts at the University of Pennsylvania agree with the hyperactive season, predicting 25 and 33 named storms, respectively.
My Safe Florida Home Halts Applications: My Safe Florida Home halted its online application process just two weeks into the revamped program, citing it has other eligibility categories for Floridians and is being cautious with its new $200 million appropriation. Originally, the program was started to provide grants of up to $10,000, with the homeowner matching by half to install new roofs, windows, and doors meant to mitigate storm damage – thereby reducing property insurance costs. But the new pool of money was quickly divided between the 3,316 homeowners that applied since the start of the month, leaving many of the 63,251 remaining applicants that have been waiting since September rather upset with the proceedings. Special restrictions have been added to the program, including bumping low and moderate-income households headed by homeowners ages 60 and over to the top of the list and removing the requirement for low-income homeowners to match 50% of the funding they receive. While the funding has run out for the moment, “That doesn’t mean the legislature won’t come back and fund the program again, as long as we have the money to do it,” I told WKMG-TV News 6 in Orlando. “I know the legislature can only do so much. We have other needs in this state for that kind of cash. So, let’s just keep encouraging the legislature to keep funding the program.”
Resilient Florida Opens Grant Program: Helping Florida counties and municipalities protect inland waterways and coastlines from the impacts of sea level rise and flooding is what the Resilient Florida Program is all about. It’s grant portal opened for applications on July 1 for planning grants and for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Resilience Plan. So far, Resilient Florida has invested over $1.5 billion into the Sunshine State, and received a further financial boost with the unanimous passage of SB 1638. American Flood Coalition Florida Director Kate Wesner, writing in The Invading Sea, called the bill “one of the most significant achievements in flood resilience. The bill uses recurring revenue from the Seminole Gaming Compact to fund several environmental programs, including the Resilient Florida grant program, the state’s signature fund for resilience…that has made Florida a nationwide leader in funding flood resilience.” The bill also ensured more communities were eligible for reduced cost share on flood projects, with an additional 25 municipalities across Florida making the cutoff.
LMA Newsletter of 7-22-24
