The Volusia County Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to appropriate $133.5 million of federal grant money toward disaster recovery efforts in areas impacted by Hurricane Milton.
Where is the money coming from?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awards these Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery funds, or CDBG- DR, to support long-term recovery, especially for unmet needs and storm mitigation not covered by other federal aid. The county’s resolution approves the allocation of these dollars for two main goals: to help rebuild Volusia and to strengthen the region against future storms through its Transform386 program.
Transform386 has been helping Volusia communities, particularly those in the 386 area-code region, and supporting residents as they recover after storms. While the county is still dealing with impacts from Hurricane Ian, it is now having to shift some of its focus toward starting extensive – and expensive – projects to get over the damages from Hurricane Milton.
According to the county’s Action Plan for these new recovery funds, at a minimum, grantees must spend at least 70% of the money on low-to moderate- income persons and 15% on mitigation projects that include working on water basins, stormwater flow, and floodplain issues.
How will the money be spent?
Managed by the county’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency, the program is designed to help qualifying people depending on their situation and eligibility. This can include reimbursements for repairs already completed, restoration or even replacement of damaged homes or wild and public areas, relocation and transition of residents when necessary, and upgrades to infrastructure to increase resilience against future disasters.
In some cases, County Manager George Recktenwald said the county could resort to property buyouts.
“It's not a new problem. It's a problem that we have worked on. We bought quite a bit of property – I think six homes that had previously flooded from other times. So again, this is, unfortunately, a continuing problem, and we're committed to trying to find, like I say, a solution,” he said.
Recktenwald was referring specifically to properties in the Miller Lake area, where a community has taken civil action against the county claiming to have suffered expensive and personal losses after Hurricane Ian left them waterlocked - without access to emergency services.
Will this help ongoing flooding?
Florida usually distributes CDBG- DR at the state level, but coastal Volusia County, with its long history of devastating floods, received a direct allocation from HUD in 2023 – $328.9 million to help recover from Hurricane Ian. Some of the projects funded by these funds from Hurricane Ian are ongoing and have focused on urgent needs like housing and infrastructure but also on economic revitalization.
But legal representation from people like the Miller Lake-area residents have said residents fear the worst, as they cope with persistent floods each storm season, and want to see the county do more. County Chair Jeff Brower had words for Volusia residents who feel this way.
“I was going to close the meeting, but I want to say one more thing about Miller Lake – they come in, and they talk in the morning – it's close to their hearts,” he said. “And I know the whole council feels it, and even though they don't see everything that we're doing, we're serious about trying to rectify that situation.”
The county is hosting a free event Thursday, open to the public, where the Transform386 team will inform members of the community struck by Hurricane Milton of their potential benefits via the program. The cookout begins at 5:30 p.m. at the John H. Dickerson Community Center in Daytona Beach.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
