Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Individual Assistance for Five Counties Impacted by Hurricane Sally
FEMA Has Approved Florida's Request for Individual Assistance in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay counties
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved Individual Assistance for Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay counties following the impact of Hurricane Sally.
With this announcement, families impacted by Hurricane Sally now have access to critical FEMA programs, including housing assistance, crisis counseling, disaster unemployment assistance, Small Business Administration (SBA) assistance, disaster legal services and case management.
“I want to thank President Trump for his steadfast commitment to Florida following Hurricane Sally,” said Governor DeSantis. “The people of Northwest Florida are resilient, and these individual assistance programs will go a long way to help their rebuilding process. From day one of my administration, we have been committed to hurricane recovery, and we are continuing that commitment by working with the President and FEMA to provide these critical resources to Floridians who need them.”
“When touring Pensacola after Hurricane Sally made landfall, I saw firsthand the devastating impact this storm had on thousands of Floridians, and I promised to do everything in my power to get them help,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Director Jared Moskowitz. “Since that day, we have deployed dozens of staff from the Division to document every single structure that was damaged, and as a result of that hard work, we are able to bring more resources to the Panhandle today. Thank you, FEMA, for approving individual assistance and getting impacted Floridians the help they need.”
On September 18, Governor DeSantis requested all programs under Individual Assistance and all categories of Public Assistance for 13 counties impacted by Hurricane Sally. On September 24, Governor DeSantis announced that FEMA had issued a major disaster declaration for Hurricane Sally, which included all categories of Public Assistance for Escambia County and public assistance Category B (emergency protective measures) for Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Washington counties. On September 30, the declaration was amended to include all categories of Public Assistance for Santa Rosa County.
Following the impact of Hurricane Sally, FDEM deployed hurricane recovery and mitigation experts into impacted counties to conduct joint preliminary damage assessments. By conducting these damage assessments quickly and comprehensively, the Division was able to submit documentation to FEMA justifying the need for individual assistance in five impacted counties. The Division continues to work closely with every county impacted by the storm to conduct damage assessments and begin the process of distributing recovery funding.
Yesterday, Governor DeSantis announced the first Emergency Bridge Loan for a small business impacted by Hurricane Sally. More information on the Emergency Bridge Loan can be found here.
For more information on Hurricane Sally and available resources, visit https://www.floridadisaster.org/info.
Updated: Friday, October 2, 2020
