DeSantis announces over $50 million for Southwest Florida Hurricane Ian relief

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced millions of dollars toward additional relief for those recovering from Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida.

“Our state apparatus has really worked exemplary, to be very aggressive,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis announced Friday his administration will be funding more reimbursements for Hurricane Ian relief including $23.2 million for Collier County, $31.9 million for Lee County, $2.4 million for the city of Sanibel, $14.2 million for the city of Fort Myers, and $7.6 million for Fort Myers Beach.

DeSantis said in the six months since Hurricane Ian made landfall, the Division of Emergency Management has secured nearly $800 million in public assistance obligations.

Because of that, his administration has been able to generate $1 billion in federal resiliency funds, which is the “most that the division has ever secured over such a short period of time.”

Florida is the first state to ever launch a state-funded housing initiative. DeSantis said as of today, Florida has been able to provide 504 impacted families with travel trailers.

DeSantis said First Lady Casey DeSantis has raised about $64 million for the Florida disaster fund and $46 million of those funds have been awarded to recovery efforts.

The governor announced two additional awards from the Florida disaster fund to support small businesses impacted by Hurricane Ian. 

He said $3 million will go to the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association to “expand their ability to provide economic relief to hospitality-based businesses that were impacted by the storm.”

He also announced $4 million from the fund to create a new small business recovery impact program to support additional small businesses outside of the hospitality sector that had been unable to reopen due to a lack of capital.

Small businesses will be eligible for up to $50,000 in grants to support their employees and help to reopen while they await their insurance payments or federal reimbursements for things like equipment, drywall, and commodities.

“So we’re happy to be able to continue to be in this fight, we understand that there’s gonna be a lot that needs to be done going forward,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said his administration wants the federal government to help “whoever needs individual assistance,” but he said “we’re not going to be limited by that.”

“A lot of the things I’ve outlined in here, if you were in another state, they would not have been doing any of this. I mean, that’s just the reality,” DeSantis said.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., talked about what’s “not happening federally.”

He said there are provisions in the IRS code that should have been in place through Hurricane Ian recovery efforts, but under former Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, “she did not do that.”

Donalds said he and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., have filed a bill and are “getting great responses” from the House and Senate to put back in the federal tax treatment for those who are trying to recover from disasters.

“We think the prospects of good for getting that tax treatment put back into place, which Speaker Pelosi let slide out of place, so that the people can actually get the tax refund from the IRS they’re supposed to be getting, not just here in southwest Florida, but all of the affected areas throughout the United States over the last the last 12 months,” Donalds said.

Donalds said FEMA has been “very, very slow” in their response to housing.

He said their “big argument that they like to make” is that while a lot of affected areas are in flood zones, “they don’t put trailers in the flood zones.”

“But this is not a normal situation. This is an emergency situation, this is a recovery situation,” Donalds said.

He said there are about 200 residents who are “out of the area completely, simply because FEMA has not been able to respond to their needs as effectively as possible.”

“I’m having now, a very public declaration towards FEMA, to cut the red tape to get people to housing that they need immediately,” Donalds said. “They should not have to wait another 90 to 120 days to be able to get the housing that they so desperately need.”

“Enough is enough. I mean, we know we live in a flood zone, I mean guess what, it’s Southwest Florida. I mean, you know, look behind you, we get that. But when people need help, they need help.”

Donalds asked the White House and FEMA to “get the job done.”

“And so I’m asking for the White House and FEMA to just get out of the way of the silly stuff and the red tape, let’s just get the job done,” Donalds said. “You’ve seen a blueprint for it here in Florida, with Governor DeSantis and his leadership is about people not politics and not budgets.”