Santa Rosa Damage Assessment Underway as County Seeks FEMA Individual Assistance

MILTON, Fla. — Santa Rosa County is about halfway through its assessment of Hurricane Isaias damage as officials work to determine whether the county can qualify for FEMA Individual Assistance.

County Administrator Brad Baker said Tuesday that preliminary assessments have identified roughly 30 destroyed homes, more than 100 homes with major damage and 161 with minor damage.

The assessment was approximately 50% complete when Baker spoke with NewsRadio 92.3 Tuesday morning.

The numbers are being provided to the Florida Division of Emergency Management as they're collected.

Baker said both state and county damage thresholds must be met before the governor can seek the federal declaration necessary to make FEMA Individual Assistance available to residents.

“We're knocking our area out so we can give them all the numbers that they need and then hopefully the governor can advocate on our behalf for a disaster declaration,” Baker said.

FEMA Individual Assistance has not been approved for local hurricane victims.

Residents are being encouraged to report damage to their primary residences through their county's damage-reporting system. Those reports help officials document the scope of the disaster.

Commercial damage is assessed through a separate process.

Baker said he's confident the county will qualify for public assistance, which helps governments recover eligible disaster expenses, but Individual Assistance requires separate thresholds.