TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Homeowners across the state of Florida are facing the same uncertainty in the wake of last year’s storms. Many still need help rebuilding, while others face shocking insurance premiums.
State leaders in Tampa Bay and beyond are eyeing ways Florida can harden and rebound after the recent storms, while remaining cautious crafting legislation to address the issues caused by back-to-back hurricanes.
“Some people are just leaving,” said Eric Braun of Crystal Beach. “They don’t want to take the chance again and they can’t get the coverage.”
Stepping into the new year, concerns for residents along the coast still remain.
“We probably won’t make it for this hurricane season and may have to go through this all over again,” said Jill Grodin, another Crystal Beach resident.
From waiting on permits to rebuild to insurance fears, Floridians are looking for answers from the state’s leaders.
“We can’t be in a rush to do bad language or bad legislation,” said State Sen. Jay Collins.
Collins says as the next legislative session approaches, there will be conversations and movement in the coming weeks.
“My biggest fear, and what keeps me up at night is that you see an overreaction and we end up putting things on paper or things in legislation that shouldn’t be there,” Collins said.
According to Collins, rushing legislation will do no good.
“I don’t want the state to come in unless we need to and fix language, but if we need to, we are going to act and do the right thing,” Collins said.
Across the chamber on the House floor, Representative Anna Eskamani says the state needs to rethink rebuilding efforts.
“There’s going to be a continuation of requests by the legislature to fund rebuilding operations for coastal communities and, of course, we should prioritize that path forward, but we need to also be really critical about where we rebuild,” Eskamani said.
With residents battling over whether to stay or leave, does the state continue to rebuild in hard hit vulnerable areas? Or move more inland and develop elsewhere?
“There are parts of our state that we can keep rebuilding, but they’re on flood zones,” Eskamani said. “They’re in areas that researchers are telling us are just no longer sustainable, not just because of these weather patterns, because of sea level rise.”
With committee weeks for both the House and Senate around the corner, these conversations will start to begin, and we could see further action this month.