FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to award nearly $20 million to protect inland and coastal communities throughout Florida, he announced Tuesday at a news briefing in Fort Myers Beach.
DeSantis, who spoke at Lovers Key State Park in Lee County, said the funding comes from the Resilient Florida Grant Program, which aims to finance 98 projects that develop and update vulnerability assessments.
Recommended Videos
[TRENDING: Orlando restaurant makes changes after problems with high school students, parents | Twitter moving to Florida? Here’s what Gov. DeSantis said about it | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
“And that’s important because these assessments are necessary to identify infrastructure at risk of flooding and help communities prioritize and develop projects to mitigate these adverse events,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said he was awarding Lee County, the area in which the news briefing was held, $582,000 to bolster their response to major storms.
This is also part of the state’s 2021-2022 budget, which affords communities across Florida $640 million to deal with the impacts of sea level rise, worsening storms, climate change and flooding.
“Because of the state-supported assessments to be derived from these awards, Floridians can be confident that future investments towards flood resilience efforts in these communities will be based on the best available science and risk modeling. And Florida will continue to lead on resilience through action,” Chief Resilience Officer Dr. Wes Brooks said at the news briefing.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton and South Florida Water Management District leader Chauncey Golf were also in attendance.
“Remember our our foundation as a Water Management District is in flood control. Now we had some bad floods back in the ‘40s, so we built the (current) system after that and that system is now, you know, half a century old,” said Golf, whose district runs all the way from Orlando to the Florida Keys. “So we need to deal with the changes we’ve seen in Florida, the changes we’ve seen in the landscape. We need to see the changes in population where we have more people living in vulnerable areas on the coasts, and we have a rising sea level and a constantly changing climate.”
This resiliency funding announcement comes a day after DeSantis announced a $17 million increase in state funding for manatee protection.