MIAMI – Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered an address on Tuesday from Miami’s Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, a 1916 estate home with 32 rooms with antiques and 10 acres of gardens. It’s a waterfront national historic landmark.
DeSantis announced the state will be allocating $404 million to his Resilient Florida Grant Program, which is meant to fund 113 projects in 25 counties to adapt critical assets to the effects of flooding and sea-level rise.
“For the first time ever, Florida has strategic coordination of statewide efforts to protect our coastal and inland infrastructure, and the dedicated funding to support these projects,” DeSantis said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s office of resilience and coastal protection is managing the program. Wes Brooks, the chief resilience officer, said the announcement brings the total investments from state-directed and local match funding to more than $1.2 billion for 189 priority projects through the program.
“Florida is leading the way on resilience so that our inland and coastal communities are better prepared and more prosperous,” Brooks said in a statement, adding the funding will support construction and engineering jobs and save billions in avoided flood and storm damages.
Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls said sea-level rise and flooding impacts home insurance rates, businesses, and communities.
“When I took office as Speaker, I knew we needed to approach this problem in a different and innovative way,” Sprowls said in a statement. “That is why we passed the Always Ready bill, carried by Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, giving our flooding and resiliency issues a long-term vision and plan, for the first time ever, to prepare Florida today for the challenges of tomorrow.”
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List of projects
Resilience projects in Florida by AndreaTorres on Scribd