ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County residents could be getting help after years of dealing with flooding caused by storms.
The county is hosting homeowner outreach meetings to let locals know about potential grant money to help prevent or fix damage to their homes.
Homeowners in the county have delt with flooding for years, but they could potentially get thousands of dollars to elevate or rebuild their homes from FEMA.
Chris said she has lived near A1A for over 20 years.
“I like the program. I think it will work and it will help us,” she said. “So hopefully it will come to fruition.”
It’s called “Flood Mitigation Assistance” or FMA. The goal is to get ahead of the next storm by improving the structure of the home so that it is impacted less. Each homeowner needs to have National Flood Plan Insurance and own the home to qualify.
Chris said she really likes that idea.
“I think it should because it will lessen the cost to the federal government to replace after storms,” she said.
Here’s how it works: Quality ES works with St. Johns County and then they submit all of the applications by Sept. 30 to Florida Disaster Management, it reviews the applications and then it’s submitted to FEMA by January. The approval process could take one to one and a half years but in the long run, it could save a homeowner thousands of dollars.
Each homeowner could get up to $220,000 toward elevating or rebuilding their home.
The county said there will be five more meetings for home owners in the coming weeks.