Pinellas County, FL – Pinellas County has received a $29.4 million federal grant to restore several waterways damaged by Hurricane Milton, funding projects intended to reduce flood risks and protect nearby homes, businesses and public infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program and will be used to repair creeks that sustained significant erosion and storm damage during Hurricane Milton. <\/p>\n
County officials said the projects will stabilize streambanks, restore water flow and strengthen drainage systems in areas affected by the storm.<\/p>\n
The award includes approximately $26.8 million for construction and about $2.7 million for engineering, environmental review, technical support and administrative costs. <\/p>\n
Under the federal program, eligible construction expenses may be covered at up to 100%.<\/p>\n
The restoration work will focus on damaged sections of Joe’s Creek, Curlew Creek, Smith Bayou and South Creek. <\/p>\n
Post storm inspections identified erosion, sediment buildup and unstable creek banks that could increase flooding and threaten nearby roads, utilities and private property if left unaddressed.<\/p>\n
Federal and county officials determined the projects would help restore channel capacity while reducing the likelihood of additional damage during future storms. <\/p>\n
Benefit analyses conducted during the application process estimated the repairs could prevent tens of millions of dollars in future losses by protecting surrounding neighborhoods and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The grant represents one of the largest federal Hurricane Milton recovery awards received by Pinellas County as local governments across the Tampa Bay area continue rebuilding efforts following the storm. <\/p>\n
County officials expect the agreement to remain in place through 2028 while permitting, engineering and construction activities move forward, with work beginning once all required approvals have been obtained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pinellas County, FL – Pinellas County has received a $29.4 million federal grant to restore several waterways damaged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[25783,135245,127402,124657,135246,135247,5892,1802,29755,135249,596,124659,124661,135250,202,204,203,199,201,200,127007,135251,124660,135248,42468],"class_list":["post-327358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-author","tag-blocks","tag-coming-soon-featured-widget","tag-coming-soon-include-featured-widget","tag-creeks","tag-creekskeywords","tag-headline","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-keywords","tag-keywordskeywords","tag-pinellas-county","tag-seo-title","tag-slug","tag-slugkeywords","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-summary","tag-summarykeywords","tag-thumbnail","tag-thumbnailkeywords","tag-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327358","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=327358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}