Although it’s been slow moving and Keys municipalities have had to use their own funds to pay for Hurricane Irma recovery, reimbursement money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is reportedly on the way 10 months post-storm. Here’s a breakdown of what municipalities have received so far. “Obligated” means FEMA has approved the project for reimbursement.
• Monroe County: Roughly $1 million
“Money is beginning to flow,” said Tina Boan, county budget and finance director.
She told County Commissioners last week she’s optimistic after two recent meetings with FEMA and state representatives.
“There is $370,000 in the queue,” but it hasn’t been received yet.
That’s on top of $604,000 the county has already received, but leaves another roughly $33 million that the county already has submitted to FEMA for reimbursement but is still waiting to have go through the long and winding approval process.
“So of the $35 million in requests, we’ve received about a million?” asked Mayor David Rice, to which Boan said yes.
• Marathon: Zero
Of the $32 million in submitted projects, the city of Marathon has yet to receive any reimbursement money. According to Finance Director Jennifer Johnson, FEMA has obligated $738,709.37.
• Islamorada: Zero
“Basically, we are currently waiting on FEMA review and funding obligation in the amount of $6,288,397.05 (the village’s reimbursement portion), not including direct administrative costs or costs for projects not yet submitted to FEMA,” said Maria Bassett, finance director for the village. “With the projects not submitted to FEMA, our reimbursement estimate total could near $8 million.”
• Key West: Zero
Of the $7 million worth of reimbursement requests from the city of Key West, zero has been received, but City Manager Jim Scholl said city staff had a conference call with Florida Department of Emergency Management reimbursement contractors this week and $2 million has been “obligated,” meaning FEMA has approved it.
“Based on the call, we expect to get approximately $800,000 of the first $2 million by next week. So, currently Key West has no reimbursement dollars but it looks like we may have the first partial increment soon,” Scholl said.
