logo
Anderson hosts Hurricane Helene town hall meeting

Anderson hosts Hurricane Helene town hall meeting

Yahoo11-06-2025
ANDERSON, S.C. (WSPA) – State officials will host a town hall in Anderson, on Tuesday, June 10, to gather input on the $150 million Hurricane Helene recovery plan.
The plan aims to help South Carolina communities recover from the effects.
From 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Westside Community Center in Anderson, the South Carolina office of Resilience (SCOR) will present their plan that outlines how the state intends to use $150.3 million in federal disaster relief funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The funds from HUD come from the community development block grant. It provides flexible grants for long-term recovery in communities affected by presidentially declared disasters, like Hurricane Helene.
According to the draft plan, funds can be used to fix or rebuild single-family homes and/or affordable rental housing, to buy property from willing owners and support projects that reduce damage from future disasters.
Tuesday night, residents from any county in South Carolina, will be able to speak with SCOR's Disaster Case Management team members (DCM) who are able to assist with ongoing financial, physical, or emotional needs that stem from Hurricane Helene.
All spoken and written input from the meeting will be summarized and added to the final action plan.
Those unable to attend the meeting can contact the team directly via the statewide hotline at 803-898-2511.
Members of the public may review the draft action plan and submit comments in advance at scor.sc.gov/helene.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The Hope Center: Multi-use facility planned for District A
The Hope Center: Multi-use facility planned for District A

American Press

time9 hours ago

  • American Press

The Hope Center: Multi-use facility planned for District A

District A in Lake Charles is starting to see the result of investment. A new resilience center is set to be established in the area. The Hope Center will be a multi-use facility that serves as both a year-round community resource and a lifeline during times of disaster. Led by the Greater St. Mary Community Development Foundation, the project represents a major infrastructure investment, economic development and long-term empowerment. The city is providing $2.6 million in disaster recovery funding through a direct allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), said Mark Tizano, director of community development, City of Lake Charles. This cooperative endeavor agreement for the allocation was approved by the Lake Charles City Council in July. The facility will be constructed on North First Avenue, between Catherine and Lyon streets, adjacent to where the proposed $8 million Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church will be built. Together, these developments will bring an estimated $11.5 to $12 million to the area, said Rev. Samuel C. Tolbet, Jr., pastor of the Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church and chairman of the foundation's board. He called the Hope Center a 'legacy project' that will improve the lives of those who live and work in the community. The project is under the purview of the foundation and is a non-profit initiative to create a facility that will 'provide hope for people in the community' and connect citizens with resources, especially in times of crisis. 'One of the things I noticed when Hurricane Laura hit, with the utilities off for 30 days, it was hard to find somewhere to get anything to eat in Lake Charles.' When activated during an emergency, the center will offer cooling and charging stations, Wi-Fi access, meal and resource distribution, and a space for nonprofit partners like the Red Cross, Tizano said. Outside of disaster response, it will be a hub for economic development and community programming in a historically underserved area. Plans include a commercial kitchen that will operate as a commissary for food trucks, a second kitchen functioning as a business incubator for small food operators, office space for local nonprofits, and a meeting room that can seat up to 150 people. The project is part of a broader transformation of the district, Tolbert said. The $26 million Enterprise Boulevard Extension Project is designed to encourage pedestrian and vehicular traffic, opening the door for businesses to locate along the corridor, as well as improve drainage, sewer and sidewalk infrastructure. And after decades of planning, the project is finally underway. Tolbert sees it as a catalyst for homeownership, youth development, and neighborhood revitalization. 'In this community, we face ongoing economic disasters,' he said. 'We can't always wait for someone to fly in and fix things. This gives us the opportunity to work together on strategies for long-term change. He served on the council over 20 years ago. The expansion of Enterprise Parkway was discussed before 2025, but was halted by a lack of funding. The passage of the 2023 tax-neutral bond proposition LC Rebound revived the project. He said it is 'amazing' to finally see the project begin to come to fruition. 'I guess you would think, at some point, you would think, I just had a good dream and it's not going to happen. And then all of a sudden, I wake up and it's happening,' he said. 'But it shows what endurance is all about. Remaining committed and building relationships over the years. Whether it's with elected officials, community leaders and other stakeholders. All of that is important in getting these things done.' Currently, the project is estimated to take 18 to 24 months to complete. The community development department will oversee the project to ensure compliance with HUD's reporting standards. Additional projects underway in District A include MGM Development's Calcasieu Heights Senior Living Community, the construction of the Goosport Pool and Project Build-A-Future's Kingman Crossing. Projects currently in design include park improvement for JD Clifton Park, the Enterprise Boulevard Extension Project and the Louisiana Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Business Incubation Center, Tizano said.

One key signal Florida homeowners are seeing some insurance relief
One key signal Florida homeowners are seeing some insurance relief

Axios

timea day ago

  • Axios

One key signal Florida homeowners are seeing some insurance relief

Florida home insurers collected more premiums than claims and expenses paid in 2024 — a rare occurrence, and even more so after three hurricanes struck the state that year. That's according to new data from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. Why it matters: Florida homeowners still face among the highest premiums in the nation, at an average of $3,815 per year. Catch up quick: The Sunshine State's vulnerability to storms has resulted in losses for insurers, which, in turn, are passed on to consumers. The result? A dismal insurance market, which for decades saw premiums skyrocket, companies go bankrupt, and an over-reliance on the state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The Legislature tried to flip that outlook in 2022, with reforms that aimed to create a more hospitable market for companies. But that didn't mean much for consumers then, who got no such relief. The latest: There are now signs of improvement, however modest. S&P Global found that Florida had the smallest increase (about 1%) in insurance premiums across the nation in 2024 and ranked it ninth overall for average home insurance cost that year. Dozens of new insurers have entered the market. All the while, the bloated state-run insurer offloaded tens of thousands of policies to the private sector, with some consumers now paying less. And last year, for the first time since 2015, home insurers raked in more than they paid out. What they're saying: "This is great news for consumers," says Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute. "Florida's always going to be above the national average because it's a high-risk state," he tells Axios. "But the market is improving." Yes, but: There's a lot to couch here. For one, S&P Global didn't account for Citizens — the state's largest insurer — when it evaluated Florida's rate increases, and a 6% statewide increase went into effect this summer. Plus, most home insurance policies cover wind, not flood damage. That means a considerable amount of devastation that hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton caused in Florida wasn't covered. What's next: Florida Peninsula Insurance, among the state's largest home insurers, requested a statewide decrease of 8.4% in its homeowners' premiums last week, per WFLA.

Florida Insurers Celebrate Record Profits as Premiums Surge For Residents
Florida Insurers Celebrate Record Profits as Premiums Surge For Residents

Newsweek

time5 days ago

  • Newsweek

Florida Insurers Celebrate Record Profits as Premiums Surge For Residents

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Florida home insurers are celebrating their best year in a decade as in 2024 they collected more premiums than paid out claims for the first time since 2015, according to the latest data by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR). Regulators' most recent Property Insurance Stability Report shows that Florida's home insurance sector has finally bounced back from a yearslong crisis, even as the state was hit by three devastating hurricanes—Debby, Helene, and Milton—last year. From Losses To Gains The Sunshine State is still in the process of recovering from a tumultuous time for its home insurance sector, as premiums skyrocketed over the past five years while carriers went bankrupt or cut coverage across the state to avoid rising costs. The crisis that unfolded in the state, which saw both insurers and policyholders struggling, was due as much to the growing threat posed by more frequent and more severe natural disasters as to excessive litigation and widespread fraud in Florida's insurance market. In an aerial view, homes along the Gulf of Mexico are seen after they were destroyed when Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 12, 2024, in Manasota Key, Florida. In an aerial view, homes along the Gulf of Mexico are seen after they were destroyed when Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 12, 2024, in Manasota Key, Florida.A particularly low point was reached in 2020, when the Florida home insurance industry collectively reported a loss of $1.2 billion. Between 2021 and 2023 alone, nine insurers went insolvent, including three of the ten largest ones operating in Florida. Faced with shrinking availability, homeowners in the state found themselves having to pay higher premiums or otherwise rely on Florida's insurer of last resort, Citizens, for continuous coverage. Citizens ballooned in size between 2020 and 2023, adding hundreds of thousands of policies to its count and raising concerns among experts and lawmakers of what could have happened should the state-backed insurer be unable to pay all their claims. While extreme weather events, like hurricanes, are likely to continue hitting Florida more often and more violently in the coming years due to the impact of climate change, state lawmakers have intervened to stop the other factors contributing to the market's crisis. Between 2022 and 2023, Florida lawmakers reformed the state's tort law so that it would be less profitable and less appealing for attorneys to take disputed insurance settlement cases. They also made contesting an insurer's offer for settling a claim harder to dispute for policyholders in the first place. "Legislative actions addressed the crisis, resulting in a 40 percent year-over-year decline in new property claim lawsuits in 2024," Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), previously told Newsweek. "This has led to market stabilization and lower rates. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that average home premiums declined by 0.7 percent statewide in the fourth quarter of 2024, the first drop in nearly a decade." Out Of The Crisis—But Not Out Of Trouble Not only tort reform—Florida has also welcomed new, smaller insurers into its property insurance market in recent months, diversifying and increasing the options available for homeowners. This has happened at the same time as Citizens had dropped tens of thousands of policies to get back to a size that can be considered sustainable. As for the latest count, dating June 30, Citizens had less than 800,000 policies in force. And yet, despite the progress made over the past couple of years to fix Florida's broken home insurance market, homeowners in the state might struggle to draw a sigh of relief, as they are still paying some of the highest premiums in the country. According to Bankrate, the average annual premium for $300,000 dwelling coverage is $5,728 in Florida. That is still much higher than the national average of $2,397. Many homeowners may also see insurers' profits as a personal slight. Out of 10,900 closed claims for residential properties damaged by Hurricane Debby closed, 7,397 were closed without payment, according to data by FLOIR. Out of 67,266 closed claims related to Hurricane Helene, 37,951 were closed without payment. And out of a total of 254,574 closed claims linked to damage caused by Hurricane Milton, 111,150 were closed without payment. There are several reasons a claim can be closed without payment, ranging from the policy not covering the damage claimed, duplicate claims, or the policyholder's decision to withdraw the claim. FLOIR data does not offer details about why these claims were closed without payment.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store