Dealing with the upcoming hurricane season
The ongoing coronavirus response in Florida has been a massive effort over the past two months. State Division of Emergency Management (DEM) Chief Jared Moskowitz said that this is the biggest logistics mission ever for the agency. “In Hurricane Michael we had 7,500 mission requests and for this event, we have had 15,000 mission requests, so far,” he said last Monday.
Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier
Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, who is a member of Governor Ron DeSantis’ Re-Open Florida Task Force that held meetings this past week, said the 2020 storm season will look different. He said he’s encouraging insurers to identify new ways to operate in a virtual environment, including virtual claims handling, and to clearly communicate changes to policyholders and agents.
Governor DeSantis wants to open a fourth state Health Department lab in interior Florida, to better protect testing capability during the upcoming hurricane season, which beings on June 1 – just 34 days from now. FEMA is thinking about setting up a second National Response Coordination Center to deal with any hurricanes, as we reported in the last newsletter.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz
Chief Moskowitz and his team are getting ready with well thought-out ideas. He said last week during the opening Task Force meeting that DEM has been planning hurricane response and are looking at non-congregate shelters, at evacuation plans, how to decide if one should stay home, where people will be coming from and going to, and that they will have more specific guidance soon.
“We pushed more recovery dollars down to the locals so since March 15, we have sent $369 million across the state and that is the most we have ever done in a 35-day period,” Moskowitz said. “We will work on getting more Hurricane Michael and Hurricane Irma dollars sooner moving forward.”
The FEMA Hurricane Michael money is really starting to roll in now. One single day last week saw FEMA approve $70 million to DEM and the Florida Department of Transportation for various expenses and $48.8 million to Panama City for debris removal expenses. As Florida continues to recover from Hurricane Michael, FEMA has also approved the state’s request to extend financial assistance under the agency’s Individuals and Households Program through July 11, 2020.
The deadline to provide financial aid to help survivors in Bay, Calhoun, Gadsden, Gulf and Jackson counties who currently participate in FEMA’s continued temporary housing assistance (CTHA) program was extended another 90 days to a total of 21 months.
Meanwhile, the cleanup from Hurricane Michael, which struck 18 months ago, continues in Bay County, ground-zero for the Cat-5 storm. The county has razed 71 structures since mid-February in a first-of-its-kind private property debris removal program.
LMA Newsletter of 4-27-20
