Florida Keys getting nearly $17 million for hurricane protection projects. Is it enough?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent most his time in Key Largo touting what he says are his administration’s accomplishments during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the official reason he came to the Keys was to announce almost $17 million in funding for hurricane and sea level rise resiliency projects.
The $16.7 million is out of a total of $100 million for “infrastructure and hardening projects” allocated statewide to areas worst hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Michael in 2018.
Irma caused catastrophic damage to many parts of the Keys, some of which is still felt and visible today
“Monroe County is still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Irma even more than three years later, and this funding will help make our communities and infrastructure more resilient in future storms and prevent costly damage,” Monroe County Mayor Michelle Coldiron said in a statement.
The money was provided to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2019 and is being allocated through the Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery funds.
“Controlling water has been a challenge Florida has faced throughout the entire history of the state, and it’s one we will continue to face, but it’s one we’re going to have to deal with head on,” DeSantis said Friday during his Keys visit.
He said the Keys were an obvious choice to fund resiliency projects given the frequency of hurricanes the island chain experiences.
“They understand that, unfortunately, these storms are part of life, but when it happens, we want to be there to be able to offer our support,” the governor said.
Specific projects have not been identified, but DeSantis said $1.3 million will go to “to protect vulnerable homes against storm surge” in Key Largo.
“The funding will go to everything from road elevation to canal improvements and storm water and wastewater systems and everything in between,” DeSantis said.
Nearly $5 million is for improvements to Key West’s stormwater and wastewater infrastructure. More than $8 million is designated to pay for the installation of a stormwater, collection, treatment and disposal system in unincorporated Monroe County. And $2.2 million is allocated for projects to prevent flooding and to “maintain better water quality” in unincorporated Monroe, according to the county.
“In the absence of detailed information at this time, it is likely the funding for unincorporated Monroe County is for a Rock Harbor breakwater project in Key Largo, a Tavernier breakwater project, and the Sands subdivision road elevation project in Big Pine Key,” county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood said.
Monroe County Councilman Mike Forster said it is unlikely any of the money will go to raising roads in low-lying Key Largo neighborhoods like Stillwright Point and Twin Lakes, both of which flood every fall — sometimes for more than a month — during unusually high tides known as king tides.
Residents in those areas have been trying for years to get the county to pay to raise the roads, but so far, that hasn’t happened. Meanwhile, temporary barriers along the mangroves have been installed in an effort to keep saltwater, which is corrosive to cars, off the streets.
The county said raising the roads at Stillwright Point alone would cost at least $21 million. The estimated price tag to raise all roads in the Keys in anticipation of sea level rise is $1.8 billion.
County officials attending the Key Largo news conference said that although the money announced is a fraction of what is needed to prepare the Keys for the challenges of rising seas and hurricanes, it is welcome.
“We were told not to expect anything, it’s going to be a tight year,” Forster said. “This is a pretty generous percentage for such a small county.”
But, he added, Monroe County has shown through its ambitious project to build a centralized wastewater system — which cost around $1 billion by the time it was completed in 2015 — that it will spend the money wisely.
“Something we’ve proven to the state since we were able to sewer the Keys,” Forster said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 5:43 AM.
