U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson spent a good part of Tuesday in Pensacola, among other things, he toured areas which sustained major damage from last month’s storms and flooding.
Nelson first met with local officials and community representatives at Pensacola State College, where they told him they had never seen floods of this magnitude. One of the Senator’s later stops was the Crescent Lake neighborhood -- where a man-made lake overflowed from the torrential rain and swamped a number of homes.
After the tour, Nelson met with officials at the Ernie Lee Magaha County Complex to discuss options for those hardest hit by the flooding.
“I’ve talked to a number of those people today,” said Nelson. “They’re folks that need help. In some cases they don’t have the means by which to have a new home, so there’s going to have to be a combination of all levels of government, plus the private sector, to respond to their needs.”
Nelson understands that many flood victims are confused over what to do and where to go. When his visited the FEMA Field Office in Brownsville, he provided some marching orders for the federal agency.
“I gave them the addresses of these folks, and asked them to send a FEMA team out there,” Nelson said. “Because a lot of folks don’t know all the help that is actually available to them.”
Those wishing to apply for federal assistance and/or reimbursement can register online at disasterassistance.gov, or by calling 1-800-FEMA.
Also on hand was Bryan Koon, Florida’s Emergency Management Director, who used the event to remind residents in the Panhandle that the Atlantic hurricane season begins next Sunday, and runs through November.
“Florida is going to be hit by another hurricane,” said Koon. I know we’ve had a nice long period of not getting one, but we are going to get hit by another hurricane. So right now’s a great time for folks to work on getting their disaster kit together. They can go to our website at floridadisaster.org and take a look at that.”
Fort the record, the last hurricane to hit Florida was Wilma in 2005, which made landfall near Naples. Koon also had a reminder that the sales tax holiday on hurricane supplies begins on Saturday and runs through June 8. Eligible items include generators, flashlights, batteries, tarps and more.