Fort Lauderdale officials provide update on shelters, clean-up, and federal money

FORT LAUDERDALE — It remained unclear Saturday whether Fort Lauderdale residents with flooded homes will receive any money from the federal government, but officials said they should temper their expectations.

At a Saturday evening press conference outside the Holiday Park shelter for displaced residents, city and state officials urged residents with more than 36 inches of flooding-- about the same height as their doorknobs-- to document their homes in hopes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will declare an emergency.

First, Mayor Dean Trantalis provided good news, updating the public on recovery efforts and announcing the opening of three “comfort stations” Sunday in the areas with the most need. The stations will provide regular meals, places to rest, charging ports, shower units and portable bathrooms.

Those shelters are located at:

Since the influx of calls for service — numbering over 5,000 in the past three days — the city of Fort Lauderdale is now seeing fewer and fewer calls, mostly about sanitation and trash.

The city has been pumping streets overnight, with 34 trucks deployed throughout the city, though some areas remain submerged in 2 to 3 feet of water, Trantalis said. He expects most of the flooding to be mitigated in the next 24 hours.

In Edgewood, the city has fully restored power and provided two station pumps and two trucks to remove water, which was still up to knee-high Friday. The water level has receded enough overnight that car travel is possible, said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Chief Stephen Gollan.

The city is also about to launch debris removal, street cleaning and muck removal operations, and urged residents to place debris on the curb, but not in bags.

And there has still been no loss of life, Trantalis said.

The city will continue working to document residents who may be overlooked, or who aren’t aware of who to call. Crews will do a more exhaustive GIS assessment in coming days.

“Not everyone’s watching TV, especially if you have a flooded home,” Trantalis said.

Finally, officials addressed the question many residents have been wondering about: will they be able to receive money to recoup all that they have lost?

The state is currently in talks with FEMA, said Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s Director of Emergency Management. But he said it was important for residents to understand that, even if that aid comes, it may not be anywhere near enough to recover what they have lost.

The average payout for a person in Florida during disasters is around $4,000, Guthrie said. The maximum is around $37,000.

To qualify for aid, the city has to cross a “monetary threshold,” Trantalis said, and he was not sure whether it would. Teams from FEMA will come to Fort Lauderdale this coming week to assess the level of damage, conducting a Joint Damage Assessment.

They will need to document sufficient levels of damage in at least 400 homes to meet the bottom of the threshold for individual assistance, which is why it’s important for residents to send in pictures of water levels higher than 36 inches.

The city is also looking at alternatives if FEMA decides not to declare an emergency. That aid will mainly come through nonprofits, Guthrie said, such as Team Rubicon. The organizations can help people repair their homes, providing equipment like dehumidifiers, though they will not offer financial aid.

Towards the end of the press conference, Dawn Beemer, a resident of the hard-hit Lauder Lakes manufactured home park, emerged from the Holiday Park shelter where she has been staying to ask whether FEMA would decide that the flooded areas are “big enough” for aid. Beemer sustained serious flood damage to her own home, and her neighbors are likely now homeless. None of them have flood insurance.

“We don’t want to feel like we’re not big enough,” she said.

Officials urge Fort Lauderdale residents in need of assistance to contact Customer Service at 954-828-8000.