Target: $13 Billion In Hurricane Michael Relief

Jul. 8--PANAMA CITY -- Bay County will receive the final version of its $6.9-billion action plan for Hurricane Michael recovery this week, and not a moment too soon.

After six months months of planning, public meetings and review, the Bay County Long-Term Recovery Task Force is set to formally approve the final report at a meeting on Tuesday at the Bay County government center. The public session will begin at 2 p.m. After that, the report will go to the county commission and seven city councils for formal endorsement.

Delivery of the 295-page document comes at a critical juncture in the community's overall storm recovery. A newly added appendix to the document addresses the recently passed congressional aid package that President Trump signed into law on June 6. Of $19.1 billion earmarked for various natural disasters nationwide in 2018, the measure assigns $13 billion to nearly two dozen different assistance programs for areas devastated by Hurricane Michael and other storms (see accompanying article). The funds are to be distributed to states and counties during the 2020 federal fiscal year, which begins on October 1.

With its self-imposed deadline to compile the report successfully met, the Task Force will not have any time to rest on its laurels. The panel and its band of consultants are facing one short-term deadline that will require immediate action: Drafting and submitting a grant application for a share of $2.2 billion set aside in the legislation for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's disaster relief effort.

The law imposed a hard deadline on HUD, mandating that it distribute to state and local grant applicants at least 33 percent of its disaster assistance funds -- or $729.3 million -- no later than October 3. The measure further requires that the remainder of the appropriation be distributed to successful grant applicants by December 3. That has created a sense of urgency for Bay officials in turn, because the law requires the county to first submit a formal application "detailing the proposed use of all funds, including criteria for eligibility and how the use of these funds will address long-term recovery and restoration of infrastructure and housing."

The remainder of the disaster funds, which are divided among eleven federal departments and three independent agencies, will also require specific grant applications, said Gary Yates, a senior partner at the county's consulting firm, The Integrity Group. "The funding requests will be an annual process."

"We're converting the long-term recovery plan into an action plan based on HUD guidelines so that Bay County can compete aggressively for its fair share," Yates explained in an interview last week. In fact, when the consultants and Task Force met on June 4 -- two days before Trump signed the disaster relief bill into law -- preliminary work was already underway on the proposed HUD grant application.

In that light, the nine-member Task Force -- with representatives from Bay County, its seven cities, and the school district -- is expected to request that the county commission extend its life so that it can continue serving as the coordinating body for the multiple applications for disaster assistance.

The scope of recovery projects and proposals in the Task Force report reflects the extensive swath of destruction that Hurricane Michael left in its wake last October 10. One conservative estimate of the monetary costs from storm damage and debris removal exceeded $1.7 billion for Bay County and its seven cities (not including more than $3 billion in devastation to Tyndall Air Force Base).

In response, the Task Force identified 316 separate "action items" totaling $6.9 billion over the projected 5-to-7-year recovery effort, Yates said. Divided into 36 separate initiatives, the action plan calls for:

* $2.73 billion for affordable housing redevelopment throughout the county;

* $756 million in new transportation initiatives;

* $598 million for economic redevelopment programs;

* $385 million for various health care facilities and service improvements;

* $320 million for drinking water and wastewater programs.

* $244 million for stormwater initiatives;

* $188 million for environmental protection measures;

* $150 million for public facility construction and hardening;

* $148 million for public safety improvements;

* $110 million for Port Panama City expansion;

* $101 million for parks, trails and greenspace improvements;

In his introduction to the report, Task Force Chairman Robert Carroll said the overarching goal of the panel and its citizen volunteers has been "to build a broad, ambitious, yet achievable blueprint for the future of all Bay communities."

"Our vision is that Bay County will emerge from this disaster as an even better home for our residents and a more desirable destination for our millions of visitors each year," Carroll added.

Yates added a blunt postscript to that comment: "Now we're facing the reality."

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