Background
Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on September 28, 2022. On September 29, 2022, President Biden approved a Major Disaster Declaration for Florida (DR-4673-FL). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) to facilitate coordinated interagency capacities and supplement state, tribal and local response efforts in the affected areas.
The Economic Recovery Support Function (ERSF), led by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) mission began on October 3, 2022, to serve alongside FEMA and the other RSFs in the Joint Field Office (JFO) in Florida. EDA is working with federal, state, and regional partners in the post-disaster recovery mission for Florida.
The Economic RSF, in partnership with Florida’s Regional Planning Councils (RPCs) and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), is facilitating regional events to enable strategic conversations between local, state, and regional stakeholders and federal agencies. The following event series will be hosted by the Southwest Florida RPC, Tampa Bay RPC, Northeast Florida RPC, Central Florida RPC, and East Central RPC.
Regional Integration Step by Step Process
Step 1: Federal Interagency Resource Exchange (FIRE): A listening session which is an important first step to share information and build relationships – January 2023.
Step 2: Economic Recovery and Resiliency Workshops: Designed to set the framework for implementation of the goals, strategies, and actions that the region may want to pursue for achieving economic recovery and resiliency – February or March 2023
Step 3: Regional Economic Diversification Summit (REDS): Focused on project development and implementation, for communities and regions with an active Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) that want to take economic development to the next level – date TBD
These efforts will be led by Milton Cochran, ERSF Field Coordinator, in partnership with Greg Vaday, EDA Economic Development Representative – Florida.
