That prompted U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to say Wednesday that he will personally do “everything I can” to make sure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is equipped to help Floridians in need.
“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that they are [fully funded],” Scott said while hosting a press conference on hurricane preparedness at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater, his third such event around the state this week.
“What’s frustrating is that part of it is funded in advance and part of it is funded afterwards. And sometimes it’s political getting it done afterwards. [With] Hurricane Ian it took two years to fund some of the disaster relief just because of the politics,” Scott said.
“I believe it will get funded. I’m going to work hard to make sure that it is.”
FEMA officials estimate that their reserves will be down to around $5 billion in June before running out of cash by July or August, Politico reported earlier this month.
Scott said he pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when she testified before federal lawmakers earlier this month about whether her agency was ready for hurricane season, saying “the biggest issue we have in Florida is the federal government has to be a partner.”
But the Florida Republican stressed that FEMA is not the primary partner for Florida after a storm hits — that would be local and state government agencies, with FEMA coming in later to help pay for items like debris removal, extra law enforcement, basic home repairs, and other uninsured or underinsured disaster-caused expenses.
$1 billion
Floridians certainly needed FEMA last year, with the agency paying out more than $1 billion in federal disaster assistance to homeowners and renters following the three major storms that hit the state in 2024: Nearly $50 million for Hurricane Debby, $449 million for Hurricane Milton, and $516 million for Hurricane Helene.
The Trump administration has made conflicting statements about FEMA. Just days after taking office in January, the president issued an executive order creating the FEMA Review Council to propose ways of overhauling the agency, and later said that it should be abolished.
Trump followed up with another executive order in March saying that it was U.S. policy for state and local governments to play a more active and significant role in emergency preparedness, while requiring the national security adviser and other officials to establish policies to increase the country’s resilience to disasters.
FEMA has lost 2,000 full-time staff — about one third of its work force — to terminations and voluntary incentives to leave as part of an effort by the president to slash the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy, Reuters reported last week.
Preparedness
Scott was joined by state Sen. Nick DiCeglie, Rep. Berny Jacques, and a host of local Pinellas County officials who all stressed the importance of Floridians starting their hurricane preparations now, and not later this summer.
Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott said that in his 43 years of living in the county he had never seen the scale of damage inflicted by the three storms. He noted that Debby dropped 12 inches of rain in the community. Helene brought 7.8 feet of storm surge, and then Hurricane Milton followed up with 125 mph winds and 20 inches of rain.
“The Pinellas County death toll from Hurricane Helene was 12, and that was from drowning,” he said. “The people who got trapped in their homes when the water came in, because they didn’t leave, and there was nobody there to come to the rescue. So this is a very, very, very serious thing.”
Jacques reminded property owners to make sure their insurance policies are up to date, reminding the public that there is typically a 30-day waiting period for National Flood Insurance Program policies to go into effect.
“So it can’t just be when you see a storm coming and you go online and make a purchase,” he said. “Start doing it now, so it can come into effect and protect you and make you whole when you need it.”
Florida experienced widespread gasoline shortages immediately after Milton slammed into the state in October, in part because Port Tampa Bay experienced historic flooding that damaged six fuel facilities.
Paul Anderson, president and CEO of Port Tampa Bay, said the port has learned from last year’s natural disaster and now has a “hurricane-hardened site” shared with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and several oil companies.
Hurricane Season begins on Sunday, June 1, and is scheduled to last until Dec. 1, although storms can come outside that window.
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This article appears in Summer Guide 2025.