Florida Division of Emergency Management Announces St. Johns County School District Adds More Than 5,000 Hurricane Shelter Spaces
Today, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) announced the St. Johns County School District has completed a two-year shelter retrofit project that added 5,141 additional hurricane shelter spaces and 133 additional special needs hurricane shelter spaces through $1.2 million in funding. The shelter spaces were added to Switzerland Point Middle School and Pacetti Bay Middle School.
“As a state, it is our responsibility to make sure we make every effort to keep people safe, and that includes having adequate shelter space,” said FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz. “This project addresses a need St. Johns County experienced during Hurricane Matthew, and sets an example for how we can learn from past storms to build more resilient communities.”
“We are grateful for the state’s assistance as we work to ensure every County resident has a safe place to go during an emergency,” said St. Johns County School District Superintendent Tim Forson. “Through this program, not only have we added more shelter spaces, but we have the extra benefit of making our schools more resilient.”
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our residents, and we are grateful to the Governor and Division of Emergency Management for supporting their safety through this project,” said St. Johns County Administrator Hunter Conrad. “The additional spaces will allow us to provide improved protection for our special needs populations during future hurricane seasons.”
This project follows Hurricane Matthew’s impact on St. John’s County in 2016 and was funded and supported by the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program and the Hurricane Shelter Deficit Reduction Program. These programs promote community resiliency through retrofits made to hurricane shelters and to residential and commercial properties.
Since 2016, the number of counties in Florida that have adequate space for Florida’s special needs populations has increased by 60 percent, from 21 in to 34 counties in 2020. Cities, counties and school districts have benefitted from shelter retrofit funding by increasing their community’s hurricane shelter space.
In the last two years, more than 20,000 new shelter spaces have been added in Florida. By the end of 2020, 31,000 additional shelter spaces are expected across the state.
For more information about the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program, click here.
Updated: Friday, February 21, 2020
