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2004 still torments Panhandle

PENSACOLA - Two hard-hit Florida Panhandle counties Friday became the first to receive money from a $250-million state appropriation for repairing and replacing low-income and uninsured housing damaged or destroyed by hurricanes last year.

Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings presented checks totaling $38.3-million - $23.8-million for Escambia County and $14.5-million for Santa Rosa County. Hurricane Ivan, the most costly of the four 2004 storms, battered both counties in September.

"We're here today to celebrate, not celebrate hurricanes but to celebrate the good that comes from people working together," Jennings said.

She made the presentation at the Pensacola Civic Center. It served as a shelter during Ivan and Hurricane Dennis, which added to the Panhandle's storm damage, July 10.

The Legislature allocated $208-million for the Hurricane Housing Recovery Program for homeowners and $42-million for the Rental Recovery Loan Program. "What we hope it means is the ability to have more affordable housing," Jennings later told reporters.

The state money is in addition to $100-million in federal emergency housing funding for Florida.

Escambia and Santa Rose were the first to complete grant applications for the state dollars, Jennings said. She said similar ceremonies probably will be held in other communities as their applications are approved although checks may be sent ahead of time.

She and Steve Uhlfelder, chairman of the Volunteer Florida Foundation, also handed out checks totaling $2.4-million to nongovernment housing assistance groups in the two counties from the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund. It has raised $20-million in private contributions.

The state dollars can be used only for victims of the 2004 hurricanes, but the private money also will help those with losses from Dennis.

The biggest check from the private fund - $1.4-million - went to Rebuild Northwest Florida. The community group formed in Ivan's wake already has repaired more than 500 storm-damaged dwellings

Panhandle school officials said they think hurricanes are partly to blame for declining enrollment in two counties that could cost them more than $1-million in state funding and lead to teacher layoffs. Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, has enrolled 41,500 students, down by 658 from last year, or 1.6 percent. Neighboring Santa Rosa County is down by 215 students to 24,909, a 0.9 percent decline.

Full mail service is expected to be restored to the barrier island community of Pensacola Beach one day before the Sept. 16 anniversary of Hurricane Ivan. The U.S. Postal Service resumed deliveries to the core business area and some residential communities three months ago but that was interrupted when Hurricane Dennis battered Pensacola Beach on July 10. Full service has not resumed sooner because many mailboxes have not been repaired or replaced and storm debris in many parts of the community on the western end of Santa Rosa Island posed a hazard, said Gulf Breeze-Navarre postmaster Joel Ouellette.

[Last modified August 20, 2005, 01:14:08]