BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA, HURRICANE MICHAEL (DR-4399-FL)
CLIENT
Bay County Board of County Commissioners, Florida
TYPE OF PROJECT
Debris Management & Disaster Recovery Services
CONTRACT PERIOD:
October 2018 to February 2023
PROJECT FEATURES
- Debris Management
- FEMA PA including new FEMA-PA Delivery Model
- FEMA-PA Training
- HMGP
- CDBG-DR
- Voluntary Home Buyout Program
PROJECT VALUE:
$19,500,000.00
SERVICES
Following Hurricane Michael, Bay County was running the largest locally led debris operation in FEMA’s history. With over $200 million in “expended” funds, the county was in dire need of expedited reimbursement from the State and FEMA to keep its recovery efforts going. CDR|EM implemented an innovative “Monitoring the Monitor” program, which provided in-depth oversight to the county’s debris management operation. This included a thorough review of the county’s Debris Monitor’s Automated Debris Management System, which provided required documentation for CAT A reimbursement. Through its efforts, CDR|EM was able to immediately identify and resolve issues within weeks of starting operations, versus months or years down the road, when it would have been too late to fix, thus resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in de-obligations.
As a result of our “Monitoring the Monitoring” process, we were able to successfully explain our review and auditing process to both FEMA and Florida Division of Emergency Management, which resulted in Bay County negotiating an arrangement in which $160 million was obligated and dispersed to Bay County within 12 months of operations – a record in the State of Florida. CDR|EM continues to provide FEMA-PA grant management, as well as HMGP, CDBG-DR, and Voluntary Home Buyout Program grant management.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Prepared Category-A documentation for FEMA Grant Portal submission.
- Provided 100% validation and reconciliation of debris removal and monitor invoices involving 19.5 million cubic yards of debris removal for FEMA reimbursement.
- Identifying projects for potential Section 428, Alternate Procedures.
- Development, submission, and approval of 26 HMGP projects valued at $125 million.
- Drafted 10 Phase I & II CDBG-DR projects valued at $146 million.
- Prepared the competitive application for Bay County’s Voluntary Home Buyout Program and received the full amount requested of $4.7 million.
- Our FEMA-PA expertise helped save the county millions of dollars in interest payments by expediting the FEMA-PA reimbursement process, which resulted in paying off $150 of a $300 million dollar loan in less than 3 years.
- Currently managing 110 Project Worksheets worth $478 million.