{"id":100705,"date":"2025-12-31T01:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100705\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T01:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:52:14","slug":"pinellas-county-sends-out-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-in-first-round-of-hurricane-recovery-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100705\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinellas County sends out hundreds of thousands of dollars in first round of hurricane recovery checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. – Hurricane Helene\u2019s<\/a> storm surge tore through the streets as Sherri Evans and her daughter could only watch in horror from her daughter’s second-story apartment on Treasure Island.<\/p>\n

“We could see the water coming in, and it got really scary,” Evans said. “The next morning it was just devastation.”<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Bay delivers supplies and love as Jamaica continues to recover from Hurricane Melissa<\/a><\/p>\n

Four and a half feet of water flooded her building down the block, but Evans said she considers herself lucky living on the second floor. She was able to move back in a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

“I was more fortunate, but so many more people weren’t, and it’s just heartbreaking to see,” she said.<\/p>\n

The storm destroyed her car, her store and its inventory, also on Treasure Island.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

MORE: $13.5M approved for St. Armands Circle Resiliency Project aimed at targeting stormwater infrastructure<\/a><\/p>\n

“For probably about nine months I was out of income,” Evans said.<\/p>\n

Big picture view:<\/p>\n

Then, she heard about Pinellas County\u2019s<\/a> People First Hurricane Recovery Programs. It\u2019s $813 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help residents recover and rebuild from Hurricanes Idalia, Helene or Milton.<\/p>\n

“Probably, like many people, I was skeptical. Obviously, I said, \u2018This is going to take a year. Whatever.\u2019 It didn’t. It was a super easy process. I had an amazing person named Gina helping me every step of the way. Ninety percent of it was done via email and texts,” she said. “Of course, they have to verify you and your situation and your income, and you know where you live.”<\/p>\n

Evans said from start to finish, it took seven weeks. She got a check for nearly $13,000 just days before Christmas.<\/p>\n

READ: Work progresses on City of Sarasota parks following 2024 hurricane season<\/a><\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“It was the best Christmas present ever,” Evans said. “There were so many things that I had put on credit cards and things that I had make payments on for my business that I didn’t have an income. So, what that money did for me was help me pay off that debt and really help me financially and took that burden off of me.”<\/p>\n

The money helps residents with home repairs, reimburses work already done, provides support for lost income or storm-related expenses, helps with homebuyer assistance and offers help for local landlords to fix units for affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Help for small businesses and nonprofits will be announced at a future date.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Federal guidelines said the programs have to prioritize residents with lower incomes, but help is for anyone making up to 120% of the Area Median Income. That\u2019s $87,600 for an individual or $125,150 for a household of four. There are no income limits for the Local Landlord Program.<\/p>\n

“If you aren’t sure if you’re qualified, just apply because you just may,” Evans said.<\/p>\n

MORE: Madeira Beach commission approves $30,700 to remove sand from under Snack Shack<\/a><\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

Since the county opened up the programs in October, they\u2019ve received 3,860 applications. The first awards for Disaster Relief Reimbursement were completed on December 12, totaling $62,243.80, and December 19 for Homebuyer Assistance, totaling $240,000. They\u2019ve given out $302,243.80 so far. Recipients have included five for Disaster Relief Reimbursement and three for Homebuyer Assistance.<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

You can apply on the county\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>. There\u2019s also in-person help Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2600 McCormick Drive, Suite 100 in Clearwater and 5000 Park Street, Suite 4 in St. Petersburg. You can also call 727-606-3307 to speak with a caseworker during the same hours.<\/p>\n

St. Pete residents can\u2019t apply because the city got\u00a0similar funding for a program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Source: This article was written with information provided by Pinellas County.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>Hurricane Idalia<\/a>Hurricane Helene<\/a>Hurricane Milton<\/a>Seen on TV<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. – Hurricane Helene\u2019s storm surge tore through the streets as Sherri Evans and her daughter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,3125,3877,1802,944,115,1157,15477,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,221],"class_list":["post-100705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-hurricane-idalia","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-hurricanes","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-seen-on-tv","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}