ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — Monday was the first out of five public meetings in Volusia County to hear residents’ ideas on how to spend nearly $329 million in funds to recover from Hurricane Ian.

In May, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated $328.9 million in funding to Volusia County for Hurricane Ian recovery.

On Monday, county officials said larger portions of the funding will go to help lower-income families repair their homes.

Dona Butler, the new director for Volusia County’s recovery & resiliency said the county is in the process of writing their action plan with constituents’ ideas, which will go into public comment for 30 days, then it will be submitted to the county’s council for approval.

After that, HUD has 60-90 days to approve it and that’s when they can spend the money. Butler said it’ll take possibly a year or two. 

Spectrum News asked how that helps residents as the 2023 hurricane season has already kicked off.

“We’re going to work as fast as we can to try to help,” said Butler. “Unfortunately, the funds weren’t allocated to us until May and we have to go through a lengthy process to make sure that we’re going to spend the funds the best way possible. They can weigh in on the process and help us that way, but unfortunately we’re not going to have the money until the December-January timeframe.”

With the first meeting in the books, Spectrum News is learning what residents want to see the money go towards.

Infrastructure and flood mitigation efforts were common topics.

Megan Ford and her husband Casey have lived in Ormond Ceach since 2004.

This family knows the risks of living here. They rebuilt their home after Hurricane Matthew. They sold it and bought another one down the street on the water.

“This is an area that we see ourselves living in for a long time raising our daughter,” said Megan. “It is problematic when the storms come through because we don’t have the infrastructure here in Ormond Beach to prevent flooding.”

Community events like the one Volusia County put together on Monday are almost mandatory for this family.

As Ford fills out this survey, Volusia County officials are trying to figure out how to spend $286 million for unmet needs and nearly $43 million for mitigation efforts allocated by HUD after Hurricane Ian.

Ford put her name in the hat and laid out her project idea: dredging or implementing a sea wall near the Strickland Creek area, hoping officials can spend money to mitigate and prevent future flooding in her neighborhood.

 “Our area is known as the Strickland Creek area here in Ormond Beach, it’s a canal that runs right off the Tomoka River and often feeds into the Intercoastal, and we’ve been over flooding with just a regular storm not just a hurricane,” she said.

In 2022, Hurricane Ian and weeks later, Hurricane Nicole flooded the Fords' home.

 “Our house was completely tore out, we had no drywall, we had no appliances, no kitchen and unfortunately we didn’t get the help we thought we would help from FEMA,” said Ford.

She said her family didn’t have funding to go to another place to live, so they all stayed in their home although it was unsafe.

Now they’re hoping the county invests some of the $329 million in areas like this, prone to flooding.

“Help us,” said Ford.

Ford said anywhere you live has its challenges, and for Florida, it's hurricanes and storms.

All Volusia County residents are invited to participate in the following community engagement meetings, scheduled to take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.:

• Thursday, July 13, at the DeLand Regional Library, 130 East Howry Ave.
  
  
• Thursday, July 20, at the Deltona Regional Library, 2150 Eustace Ave.
  
  
• Thursday, July 27, at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library, 1001 South Dixie Freeway
  
  
• Thursday, Aug. 3, at the Daytona Beach Regional Library, 105 Jackie Robinson Parkway