Hurricane Michael Recovery

Project Overview

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida panhandle region as an unprecedented Category (Cat) 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 161 miles per hour (mph). Hurricane Michael was the worst storm to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history and, at the time, the fourth-worst hurricane to hit the continental United States (US). In six short hours, the Cat 5 storm caused devastating damage to over 45,000 structures, including 98 percent of the City of Panama City’s (CPC) infrastructure.

Hagerty has been a close partner on the city’s road to recovery from Hurricane Michael. Our team has supported the city as they have sought out more than $445 million in available federal and state disaster funding to rebuild a stronger and more resilient CPC. As of Spring 2022, the City has secured $318,431,909 in disaster grant funding through Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) program and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP); the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Disaster Block Grant (CDBG) – Disaster Recovery (DR) program (CDBG-DR); Hazard Mitigation Loan Program (HMLP); Watershed Planning Grants; as well as the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and various State Appropriations.

Understanding the Mission

Our team has provided the city with expertise in overall disaster recovery, including long-term recovery and economic development planning, community engagement and outreach events, unmet needs assessments, housing recovery, hazard mitigation grant development, and community development block grant administration. Hagerty assisted the city with securing a now forgiven $5 million Community Disaster Loan and a waiver of the city’s 12.5 percent cost share on all FEMA projects, saving the city an estimated $12.7 million.

As the City positions itself to rebuild resiliently, the long-term goals and budgets do not always align, requiring innovative solutions to fill funding gaps. With the support of Hagerty, the city has sought additional disaster grant funding opportunities to support larger projects that are critical to the community’s quality of life. The creative teamwork between Hagerty and the City has resulted in applying layered funding to fill funding gaps, enabling City leadership to pursue its recovery vision.

The Hagerty Approach

Since Hurricane Michael, CPC has experienced four additional federally declared disasters, including another hurricane, a tropical storm, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a wildland fire fueled in part by Hurricane Michael debris. Coupled with ongoing supply chain delays and inflation, Hagerty supported the city as it faced a unique situation – leveraging multiple disaster funding sources across multiple disasters to offset cost increases and maximize all available recovery funding. Some examples include:

• Leveraging CDBG-DR match funding to cover the City’s 25 percent cost share on all FEMA 404 Hazard Mitigation funded projects; the total awarded to date is $63.5 million.
• Combining FEMA PA-funded underground utility repairs with State Revolving Funds and CDBG-DR Infrastructure funding to rebuild underground water, stormwater, and sewer lines throughout the City; total award: over $200 million.
• Offering to purchase an estimated 20 homes with a repetitive flood history using both CDBG-DR and FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) funding (beginning in the summer of 2022).

Achieving Results

Since 2018, Hagerty’s disaster recovery experts have worked closely with City staff to coordinate cost recovery, grant management, grant compliance, and project closeout. Together, the City and Hagerty celebrate these major recovery accomplishments and milestones: 

• Over $318 million in disaster recovery funding was secured to rebuild a stronger, more resilient Panama City.  
• Over $47 million was awarded by FEMA to fund ten HMGP reimbursement projects. 
• 97 percent FEMA obligation rate of the City’s PA reimbursement projects.  
• $9.8 million identified in missing eligible costs during the review of FEMA PA cost estimates.  
• $20 million in expedited funding for debris removal with the support of the Florida Department of Emergency Management (FDEM); total debris removal costs have exceeded more than $80 million, with nearly 95 percent of the total costs validated for federal reimbursement. 
• $5 million loan forgiveness from FEMA’s Community Disaster Loan program due to compliance with all loan requirements.