Brinkley Hill
•7/8/2026
CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)— Sen. Ashley Moody and Congressman Greg Stubbe announced $1.8 Billion in FEMA funding is coming to Florida.
Charlotte County is getting $64 million to help with 28 projects from Hurricanes Debby, Helene, Milton, Idalia and Ian. The projects covered everything from restoring waterways, roads and traffic signals, debris removal and improvements to the Port of Charlotte.
"Florida has been waiting on essential disaster assistance funds for hurricane recovery since 2017— I've been in the Senate for less than a year and a half and have worked hard to bring nearly $2 billion of outstanding FEMA funds back home to Florida," Sen. Moody said.
Sen. Moody said for nearly a decade this FEMA funding has been in limbo waiting to be processed. The money will be used for debris cleanup, resiliency and infrastructure projects that were a vital part of keeping the community safe and rebuilding after a disaster.
"We got hit hard three times in a row, so it really helps a lot," said Shan Swelland, president of the Charlotte DeSoto Building Industry.
Swelland is a commissioner at the Charlotte County Airport. He said Charlotte County's recovery was fast, but this FEMA funding is critical to continue that recovery.
"I've been through a lot of storms. I've grown up in Florida my whole life, and I've never seen anything like water damage. I've seen wind damage, but the water damage was unbelievable," Swelland said.
The grants will be distributed through FEMA's Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs to support more than 500 recovery projects across the state. Projects include repairs to educational facilities, restoration of critical infrastructure, debris removal and costs incurred during emergencies to protect life and property.
"We're here to tell you we are getting things done. Charlotte County is gonna be the beneficiary of that," Moody said.
Charlotte County Commissioner Joe Tiseo said the county struggles with having the bandwidth to deal with federal regulatory agencies such as FEMA to get the money owed to Charlotte County.
"We're dealing with the boots on the ground pre and post-storm recovery, and we have our hands full. And one of the things we struggle with is having the bandwidth to deal with the federal regulatory agencies such as FEMA to get the money that's owed to Charlotte County," Tiseo said.
Sen. Moody said this is just the beginning, introducing the TRACK Act to bring more transparency to the FEMA disaster aid process, which has now been passed into law. The TRACK Act mandates a status tracker on the FEMA website so victims of a disaster have easily available knowledge and insight of their claim's progress.
"That will give victims of disaster an easier way to have knowledge and insight into that claims process, which I can say firsthand is incredibly burdened and murky and more complicated than it needs to be," Moody said.
The Charlotte County administrator Hector Flores said FEMA contributes to 62% of the project cost, totaling $341 million.
"There's still a lot of work for us to be done. Our teams are working on the projects," Flores said.
Charlotte County isn't the only community in Southwest Florida getting funding. Sen. Moody announced Lee County will get $57 million, and Collier County is getting more than $4.2 million.
