NACo leaders visit Florida county to see disaster-impacted areas

NACo officials visited  Monroe County, Fla. to view Hurricane Irma recovery efforts 

As communities in Florida continue recovering from devastation caused by Hurricane Irma, leaders from NACo visited Monroe County, Florida in the Florida Keys to get a firsthand look at what progress has been made. NACo leadership making the March 13 visit included NACo President Roy C. Brooks (Commissioner, Tarrant County, Texas), along with NACo 2nd Vice President Maryann Borgeson (Commissioner, Douglas County, Neb.), NACo Resilient Counties Chairman James Gore (Supervisor, Sonoma County, Calif.) and County Legislator Luis Alvarez (Sullivan County, N.Y.).

On Sept. 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma crashed into Monroe County with sustained winds of over 130mph, destroying over 4,100 homes and businesses and causing damage to nearly 5,400 other structures. In the months since the storm hit, Monroe County leaders, including District 3 Commissioner Heather Carruthers and County Administrator Roman Gastesi, have worked tirelessly to help county residents displaced by the storm recover.

At this stage, Carruthers and Gastesi are focusing much of their energy in four key areas: marine debris removal from federally protected waters, rebuilding a resilient housing stock, obtaining reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for land debris removal and improving the resiliency of publicly owned infrastructure.

During a briefing with NACo officials, Carruthers went into detail about each of Monroe County’s priorities, highlighting the county’s roughly 500 canals that were impacted with over 100,000 cubic yards of debris, which has generated an estimated cost of $52 million for cleanup. Additionally, the county, through coordinated efforts with FEMA, is also working to help over 9,870 families that were displaced by Hurricane Irma repair and rebuild more resilient homes. At least twenty percent of the county’s homes were damaged by the storm.

Carruthers and Gastesi also explained that Monroe County is still working with FEMA to receive reimbursements for more than $45 million the county spent on emergency protective measures and land debris removal. The pair noted Monroe County was forced to take out a $40 million line of credit to cover those expenses in the wake of the storm, and is asking FEMA to expedite their reimbursement request.

Finally, Carruthers shared that as the county works to rebuild its infrastructure, they plan on exploring ways to maximize and leverage funding from the disaster supplemental funding bill passed by Congress earlier this year to build more resilient transportation and utility infrastructure to mitigate the damage of future storms.

As Monroe County, Fla. and communities across the country continue recovering from the historic 2017 hurricane season, NACo remains committed to working with local governments, Congress and federal agencies to ensure critical funding and assistance is available to help communities rebuild.