Housing is vital for those living on Helene road

‘There will be a need for a housing mission,’ the governor said.

One of the biggest needs of Taylor County residents, hit by three hurricanes in 13 months, is what Hurricane Helene wiped out: housing.

At Dekle Beach Saturday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized the need for shelter assistance for people whose homes were flooded after Thursday evening’s storm surge of at least 15 feet (perhaps as high as 20 feet) submerged homes.

“You’re just seeing some houses in rubble right now,” DeSantis told reporters. “If this is your primary residence, you will be displaced. “There will be a need for a housing mission.”

DeSantis spoke in Taylor County, where a Category 4 storm made landfall, with wooden pillars that once held up a house peeking up from the ground.

It’s a familiar scene along the Big Bend coastline, which has been hit by Hurricane Idalia (peaking at category 4), Hurricane Debby (category 1) and now Hurricane Helene in the past 13 months.

For emergency shelter, DeSantis said residents in need can go to Visit Florida’s emergency housing portals via Expedia And price line. But he also noted that more help would be needed for Taylor County, which is a sparsely populated area without many nearby hotel or motel options.

Florida emergency management director Kevin Guthrie, who was with DeSantis, outlined three programs available to residents: the state home repair program, the state-run RV housing program and another RV program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Guthrie emphasized that the repair program will provide minimal but vital repairs to remove dirt and debris from homes. The state’s trailer program is available for six to 12 months, but the FEMA program can provide a trailer for up to 18 months.

Guthrie added that those trailers can’t be placed close to shore, but said some are already on their way to Taylor County.

“We want to immediately refer you to some type of housing program,” Guthrie said. “We want to get you there as quickly as possible.”

DeSantis noted the damage the storms inflicted on Taylor County, which faced the closure of a paper mill shortly after it ripped through Idalia last year.

More: Georgia Pacific keeps Perry plant closed as it works on ‘another business opportunity’

The governor said that as of Saturday morning, 11 people had died in the storm, but there were no deaths in Taylor.

“Losing a home is huge, losing an economic engine is huge,” DeSantis said, but he thinks the region will rebound.

“People here are very brave and very resilient. It won’t be easy… but (healing) will happen.”

Gray Rohrer He is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.