Aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Milton
NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite captures Hurricane Milton approaching Florida (left, photo by NOAA). Governor Ron Desantis addresses the damage to Seaport Manatee following Hurricane Milton (right, photo by SeaPort Manatee).
On October 9, 2024, at 8:30 P.M., Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key on Florida’s Gulf coast. Milton sustained winds of 120 miles per hour at landfall, delivered over 18 inches of rainfall in certain locals in a single day, and left more than 3 million people without power in Florida.
Less than two weeks earlier, on September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene struck Florida’s Big Bend regions as a Category 4 hurricane, causing major flooding, storm surges up to 15 feet and widespread damage across six states. Together, these two storms – Helene from surge and Milton via wind – caused economic losses across Florida estimated between $35 to $55 billion according to Moody’s.
Paths of Hurricane Helene (left) and Milton (right) from NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS).
GSI is incredibly grateful that our office and laboratory at Seaport Manatee sustained minimal damage and our staff are all safe. Unfortunately, many of the partners we work with and the shellfish aquaculture industry that we support did not fare as well. Critical infrastructure at Seaport Manatee suffered an estimated $225 million in damages, including major structural losses to warehouses, berths, and the container yard; slowing operations worth an estimated $5.1 billion annually in economic impact for Southwest Florida. Additionally, most of the shellfish aquaculture industry on Florida’s Gulf coast experienced significant damages to their operations. According to Adrianne Johnson, Executive Director of Florida Shellfish Aquaculture Association (FSAA), damages from Helene were estimated at $64 million; with Milton compounding those impacts, bringing the estimated damages closer to between $90 and $100 million.
Federal and State Disaster Declarations were announced for both storms, prompting an influx of emergency funding from FEMA and the State’s Florida Disaster Fund. The Biden-Harris Administration has promised $2.1 billion to assist with general recovery efforts across the affected areas. Additionally, Governor Ron DeSantis visited Seaport Manatee on October 14, 2024 to announce the State’s continued support of recovery efforts through a $9.5 million allocation from the Florida Disaster Fund to accelerate Seaport repairs. State emergency funding will be used to restore berths, conduct maintenance dredging, increase security, and improve Seaport resiliency to future natural disasters. The DeSantis Administration also allocated $1 million from the Florida Disaster Fund to the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida to replace and repair damaged aquaculture and fishing infrastructure.
While these efforts are a first step towards recovery, delivery of financial assistance from federal and state agencies can be bureaucratically slow and often fall-short of meeting individual and industry immediate needs. For example, past emergency block grants to support working waterfronts have taken months to years to implement, which is not a commensurate timeline for delivery of aid following a disaster. In addition to bureaucracy, the USDA, the primary federal agency responsible for administering federal disaster assistance in agriculture, lacks the subject matter expertise to make terrestrial-based assistance programs work for the needs of the aquaculture industry. Both slow allocation of federal emergency assistance programs and their continued inefficiencies for the industry are causing the erosion of once vibrant ‘working waterfronts.’ If action is not taken to improve disaster assistance, these historic coastal communities of cultural significance will be replaced with tourism based economies.
The Gulf Shellfish Institute is actively coordinating with industry representatives and policy makers to provide additional aquaculture disaster assistance, address the many shortcomings in federal disaster relief, and protect working waterfronts from future storms. For immediate assistance, GSI is advancing the idea of compensating aquaculture farmers and local watermen/women to clean-up their waterways following a natural disaster. Additionally, GSI is pushing for establishment of an Office of Aquaculture within the USDA to provide the subject matter expertise to make already existing, but terrestrial-focused assistance programs, work for the aquaculture industry. Finally, GSI is advocating for federally recognized designations for working waterfronts, establishing resiliency funds, and building communities in ways that reduce storm impacts.
In the coming weeks, GSI and its many partners will continue to evaluate the state of the shellfish aquaculture industry and our shellfish restoration projects. Although much has been lost, our organization remains optimistic for the future of shellfish aquaculture in Florida and we are committed to help Florida’s Gulf coast rebuild in the wake of these devastating storms.