President Biden approved federal disaster funds for nine Florida counties.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in nine Florida counties on Thursday following Hurricane Ian’s destructive rampage through the state.
For the large number of Floridians, the scale of the damage is severe, and the state is looking at billions of dollars’ worth of repairs to infrastructure and public property in the coming months.
More than 2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida Wednesday overnight, as the storm disabled two major bridges, severed access along an interstate, and nearly razed the city of Fort Myers to the ground.
Jared Moskowitz, the former director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said that most of Fort Myers Beach will need to be completely rebuilt.
Congress is set to enact a funding bill at midnight on Friday, though the disaster relief funding is not only for Hurricane Ian.
The stopgap measure will provide billions of dollars in extra disaster assistance for states across the country and will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to spend through the Disaster Relief Fund.
This is expected to free up an additional $15 billion in aid for disaster relief.
