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Florida lawmakers approve Hurricane Michael relief

Posted at 5:49 PM, Mar 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-08 17:49:21-05

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.(The News Service of Florida) — More help may be coming to Hurricane Michael Victims.

Northwest Florida lawmakers promoted a 315 million dollar proposal that would make loans-available to local governments still reeling from Hurricane Michael.

It would also set up a task-force to determine additional state assistance.

This comes after many other proposals have been filed in the House and Senate to provide relief following the deadly Oct.10 storm.

Local lawmakers say about 1.2 billion dollars has been spent by the state to help with cleanup efforts and local communities have burned through their budgets.

"You have high poverty rates. You have high unemployment rates already. You have a very sensitive environment, and then you have this storm that just came in and devastated everything. This is a unique problem which will require very, very unique ways to address it," said State Sen. Bill Montford.

One goal of the proposal is to make sure school districts see minimal impacts.

The Senate proposal would also set aside 15 million dollars to help provide loans for the timber industry which accounted for the vast majority of agricultural damages from the storm.