DeSantis Awards $8.7 Million for Hurricane Ian Recovery

MATLACHA (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded $8.7 million dollars for Hurricane Ian recovery, including funds for workforce education.

DeSantis said $1 million from the Florida Disaster Fund will be awarded to help emergency personnel, National Guardsmen, and other community members who have been displaced or negatively impacted by the Hurricane.

“We want the money to be as impactful to people as possible in ways that the government programs may not be able to reach – so that’s the philosophy behind it,” DeSantis said.

$7.7 million will be awarded to help with workforce needs at the following locations: State College of Florida ($2.9 million), Florida Southwestern State College ($2 million), South Florida State College ($618,000), Fort Myers Technical College ($973,000), Cape Coral Technical College ($200,000), and Career Source Florida ($1 million).

“We want to make sure that we are doing things to have everything in place so that we can see a boom in the future and one of the things that means is making sure we have people with the right training to be able to fill key positions in our workforce and in our economy, in particularly things like skilled labor that are at a premium,” he explained.

The Florida Disaster Fund is the State of Florida’s official private fund established to assist Florida’s communities as they respond to and recover during times of emergency or disaster.

The Governor has held several press conferences announcing different ways the administration would help disperse the money.

Recently, $2 million from the Florida Disaster Fund was distributed to teachers who were affected by Hurricane Ian.

The Florida Disaster Fund has now raised more than $55 million for relief efforts.