Category 5 Hurricane Michael caused extraordinary damage to the housing sector in Florida’s Panhandle, damaging or destroying more than 340,000 homes in October 2018. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s (FLDEO) Office of Disaster Recovery (ODR) was responsible for administering more than $245 million, which was allocated to the state through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The CDBG-DR funding supported disaster recovery efforts for property owners in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Leon, Liberty, Taylor, Wakulla, and Washington counties. The funding is used to satisfy a portion of unmet needs for low- and moderate-income families that remain after other federal assistance, such as FEMA, the Small Business Administration, or private insurance, has already been allocated.
While hurricane activity in Florida continues year over year, our team is doing what we can to help impacted residents, businesses, and organizations recover, and provide mitigation and resilience solutions for future generations."
Trevor Noble and Ben Blitch
Following Hurricane Michael in October 2018, we’ve been providing damage assessments to homes and properties in support of FLDEO’s ODR, which administered more than $245 million for recovery efforts.
The intention of the project was to repair, replace, or reconstruct qualified homes damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. Our team was hired to provide damage assessments, structural assessments, lead-based paint (LBP) risk assessments, quality control, architecture/engineering services, and construction progress inspections. With such a large quantity of homes to inspect, we teamed with other local firms to assist with these services and the teams collectively completed an immense amount of work.
- 1,377 damage assessments
- 234 structural assessments
- 409 LBP risk assessments
- 349 site-specific reconstruction designs
- Nine rehabilitation structural plans
- 564 boundary surveys and elevation certificates
- 28 geotechnical investigations
Recovering, Planning, and Preparing
While hurricane activity in Florida continues year over year, our team is doing what we can to help impacted residents, businesses, and organizations recover, and provide mitigation and resilience solutions for future generations. Our staff from across the country support not only residential projects and clients, but also those in the federal, municipal, and commercial markets across Florida, specifically in the Panhandle. We supply geospatial damage assessments following storms and other natural disasters and have a team of professionals supporting the rebuild efforts for a federal client. Our water and resilience practices are regularly evaluating ways that impacts from storms can be mitigated, protecting Florida’s infrastructure and allowing for a more resilient state.