On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that since March 15, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) has awarded more than $500 million for hurricane recovery to provide additional support to communities during the coronavirus pandemic.
These awards are provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance Grant program. Last week, FDEM also began paying out funding through the CARES Act for Florida counties with a population of less than 500,000.
“When we began our response to COVID-19, we knew that communities would need every available resource to keep their residents safe,” said DeSantis on Monday. “That’s why I directed FDEM to expedite these payments in March, and I’m proud to announce that since then, they have paid out more than $500 million in just three months.”
“Even while conducting our COVID-19 response, we never lost sight of the need to award hurricane recovery funding statewide,” said FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz. “Overall, since January 2019, we have awarded more than $2.5 billion for hurricane recovery. Paying out $2.5 billion in 18 months and $500 million in three months represent landmark accomplishments for the Division, and we will keep working every day to get more funding out the door.”
The FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program provides assistance to state, tribal, local governments and certain types of private non-profit organizations so that communities can quickly respond to and recover from major disasters or emergencies declared by the president. This program also provides supplemental federal disaster grant assistance for debris removal and emergency protective measures.
