TALHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) – Residents descending the coast, leaving last year’s hurricane, were confused and annoyed by the delayed permits and recovery. Now, with another hurricane season approaching soon, several Tampa Bay lawmakers are hoping to pitch the law and cut through red tape to bring Floridians home.
“Even today, there are residents waiting to get permission to return home.
Video: A Florida woman is locked in a car as a tornado passes. The fragments fly away
Diseglie of Pinellas County shared her efforts on Tuesday to address the Senate Committee on Community Affairs’ Permissions. Senate Bill 180 is described as an edited compilation of “Lessons Learned” after the 2024 hurricane season.
“One of the key elements of this bill is the permitting process, and unfortunately, in Pinellas County, we’ve seen specifically simply lack of training,” Diceglie said.
Diceglie hopes that post-storage permit plans are a step in the right direction.
“Every May 1st, the plan is on their website. The community can see the plan, and the training will be no different from when training law enforcement,” Diceglie said.
The long bill also requires Florida’s Office of Emergency Management to maintain statewide emergency plans coordinated with federal, state and local agencies. The plan includes provisions for evacuation, shelter, medical evacuation, disaster response and recovery.
Waving in support of the bill, Eric Poole, executive director of the County County Association of County Associations, confirmed that Florida has the best emergency management system in the country.
“The reason is that our system is tested every year. We learn from each of those storms – each storm is unique – and I think this bill clearly pulls a lot of the lessons we’ve learned from the 2024 hurricane season,” Poole said.
As more and more lawmakers try to tackle permission for concern, the Florida Emergency Management Department is now promoting its first statewide program aimed at raising and hardening homes.
“Not only will it help people get out of the flood by getting out of the flood planes, it will cut their flood insurance premiums,” Guthrie said.
“Elevate Florida” aims to speed up and complete housing mitigation projects. According to Guthrie, the program aims to support around 1,000 homes where 5,000 applications are already deployed.
“We’re going to be faster with this. Our goal is to grow our home by this summer,” Guthrie said.
Representative Lindsay Cross, D-ST. Petersburg, another state legislator in Pinellas County, is well versed in the issues of permitting and recovery.
“There are many places where you can get more convenience and better coordination between the federal government and local partners,” Cross said. “One thing I’m looking at is to make sure that local governments have the right disaster preparedness plan.”
