More than five months since Hurricane Matthew hit the area, clean up still continues across Central Florida’s coastal communities.
- Emergency Management director says nearly 100 percent of funding almost gone
- Hurricane Matthew left derelict boats, destroyed docks in waterways
Now it has been discovered that funding to clean up debris in local waterways is about to dry up and there is still much more clean up to do.
The hurricane left abandoned boats, destroyed docks and construction material behind in local waterways.
“While the state is about 10 percent of the way through the cleanup of all the debris in our waterways, they are almost 100 percent of the way through their funding for the project,” said Kimberly Prosser, Brevard County’s Emergency Management director.
Counties and cities are tasked with cleaning up debris on land and much of that cleanup has already been completed.
However, the state is in charge of cleaning up navigable waterways.
“This is not the typical items that you’re going to find in waterways, this is construction materials, this is docks, this is things that are impacting navigation,” said Prosser.
An original estimate found it would cost $40 million for the state to clean up waterway debris in eight counties, including Brevard, Volusia and Flagler counties.
The state so far only has $10 million to do the work.
“When the county had land debris, we made sure that was cleaned up,” said Prosser, “The state needs to do the same thing with the waterways.”
Just like the counties and cities that were eligible for reimbursement, the state could get back 75 percent of the cost of cleanup through FEMA.
The Brevard County Commission meets at 9 a.m., Tuesday, to decide if they want to send letters to local state lawmakers and the governor, asking for funding for the waterway cleanup effort.