Manatee County officials review 2024 storm damage, recovery operations and CDBG-DR spending plans

Manatee County and Holmes Beach leaders opened a joint meeting Tuesday with a review of the 2024 hurricane season and a detailed look at federal recovery funds planned to address storm damage. County public-safety staff said Hurricanes Debbie, Helene and Milton produced 4 to 20 inches of rain in places, storm surge up to 9 feet in spots, wind readings near 120 mph, roughly 300 rescues and about $56,000,000 in damage countywide.

"Our operational posture for 2025 and frankly moving forward, we are basing our response on the impacts of the storm, not the potential for reimbursement," said Jody, deputy/assistant public-safety director, summarizing lessons learned and steps to speed response for residents. County staff described new tools and tactics used during the season, including the Peregrine dashboard to consolidate weather and infrastructure data, pre-crafted WebEOC missions and the placement of incident management teams directly in municipalities.

County utilities and grant staff also outlined a large slate of federal Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) programs intended to address the unmet needs identified after the storms. Odigo Oizu of the county's grant division said the county's action plan prioritizes housing and infrastructure: a Home Recovery program at about $75.5 million for homeowner repairs (up to $250,000) and reconstruction/elevation (up to $450,000), a Rental Recovery program at about $20 million, a $12 million buyout and safe-housing program, an Infrastructure Recovery and Resiliency program at roughly $125 million (including a $32.49 million mitigation set-aside) and a $5 million infrastructure match program.

The housing programs will be phased by income and household factors: early rounds focus on households at or below 50% of area median income (AMI), expand to 80% AMI with household characteristics, then to higher tiers up to 120% AMI as funding allows. Oizu said assistance will come as forgivable loans secured by promissory notes (typically five years) and, for buyouts, a county acquisition would convert the parcel to green space or floodplain management.

On utilities, Pat Shea, utilities director, said the county draws about two-thirds of its drinking water from the Lake Manatee Water Treatment Plant and plans a major "Basin D" expansion estimated at about $198 million with design slated to start in 2026. Shea also described a $200 million-plus expansion of the Southwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility to boost wastewater capacity.

County and municipal officials emphasized that FEMA acts primarily as a recovery agency: county staff said FEMA teams remain active in public assistance reimbursement work and the county was among the first to receive expedited Category A/B funds after the storms, but local and state responders handle initial search-and-rescue and response operations. Officials urged municipalities to continue participating in exercises and cross-jurisdictional planning to improve readiness.

Next steps: county staff will publish program guides for CDBG-DR infrastructure allocations, accept phased housing applications once manuals are released and continue engineering and design work for major water and wastewater projects slated to enter design and procurement over the next 18 months.