MONROE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HURRICANE IRMA RECOVERY UPDATE – EVENING

MARATHON, FL – Today, Gov. Rick Scott made his seventh trip to the Florida Keys to deal with Hurricane Irma. He led a roundtable that included Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon, FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Willie Nunn, Monroe County Mayor George Neugent and other federal, state and local officials. The group discussed the progress and actions to take on debris removal, temporary housing, small business assistance and other recovery topics.

During the meeting, it was announced that 400 members of the Florida National Guard were being deployed to the Keys to help with debris removal and that 6,000 tarps were on the way.

FEMA’s Nunn reported that 27 families had been approved for temporary trailers and that they would be bought directly from vendors.

As of Sept. 24, FEMA has registered 27,935 people for individual assistance and so far has approved 10,771 and funded them $14.9 million. FEMA has 54 people in the Keys that can assess damage and reported that it has trained 30 more and plan to train another group to enable at least 800 to 900 properties to be assessed for damage each day.

FEMA’s Nunn reported that Monroe County has been approved for the assistance program called STEP (Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power). It provides resources that bring affected homes to a basic level of habitability to enable disaster survivors to shelter in their homes until permanent repairs can be completed. That program is not activated yet. Guidelines are currently being worked on.

FEMA also is working on establishing the Multi-Family Lease and Repair Program in the Keys. It allows FEMA to repair or make improvements to existing multi-family housing units of at least three dwelling units per site. These units are then used as temporary housing for eligible applicants who are unable to use rental assistance due to a lack of available resources.

The Small Business Assistance has received 9,349 referrals in Monroe County. So far 651 businesses have registered with 7 approved for $497,400 in funding.

WATER

The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority announced that there no longer are any boil water notices in effect in the Keys.

CURFEW

Monroe County has updated its curfews in some areas. Beginning Monday evening, Sept. 25, there will be no curfews in the following areas:

  • Miami-Dade/Monroe County Line to MM 90 in Tavernier
  • Rockland Key Bridge (MM 9) to Key West

The curfews will not change in the followings areas due to the request of the municipalities of Islamorada and Marathon and by the County in the hardest hit areas:

  • Islamorada to Marathon (MM 90 to MM 47): 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.
  • North end of Seven Mile Bridge (MM 47) to Rockland Key Bridge (MM 9): 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

DEBRIS REMOVAL

In Unincorporated Monroe County, more than 25,000 cubic yards of debris has been removed. The Florida Department of Transportation continues to remove debris from the Overseas Highway and some neighborhood streets.

POWER

Keys Energy Service, which covers the Seven Mile Bridge to Key West, reports that power has been restored to 93 percent of its customers. The 7 percent who remain without power are on Blimp Road, Little Torch and Big Pine keys. Crews are working diligently to restore those areas.

If your neighbors have power and you do not, and you have not already reported the outage, call 305-295-1010

DONATIONS

Monroe County has received an outstanding amount of tangible donations from outside of our community for Hurricane Irma survivors. At this time, we no longer need more tangible donations.

The best way now to help our community is to go to Keysrecovery.org and choose a non-profit organization that is posted to give a monetary donation.

If you already have tangible donations located in Monroe County, they can be accepted at a facility on Rockland Key (MM9). These goods and supplies (no clothes, please) will be distributed through local non-profits. The warehouse is large, can accept semis and has a forklift. Please call 305-900-8687 or 305-923-2238 to coordinate acceptance.

keysrecovery.org * facebook.com/MonroeCountyFLBOCC/ *@monroecounty

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