Published On: Mon, Feb 15th, 2021

Palm Beach County Awarded $800,000 by State of Florida to Support Climate Resilience Planning Efforts

By: Robert S Weinroth

On Jan. 8, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Palm Beach County will receive $800,000 for a Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Action Plan. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) awarded the funds through its Rebuild Florida General Planning Support Program that provides funding for communities and organizations to develop or enhance plans that will enable the state of Florida to withstand future disasters. The funds are allocated through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation program.

Palm Beach County staff will use the funding to prepare a climate change vulnerability assessment focused on unincorporated Palm Beach County and its western communities. Staff will then use the vulnerability assessment and community input to develop a countywide resilience action plan. The project will identify strategies to mitigate and adapt to hazards such as flooding, severe storms, tropical cyclones, coastal erosion, extreme heat and wildfires, all of which are exacerbated by climate change and sea level rise. 

Megan Houston PBC Resilience Director

“With detailed information about natural hazard risks, community asset exposure and adaptive capacity, we’ll be better equipped to continue to make proactive, equitable and cost-effective investments that increase our overall resiliency to climate threats,” said Assistant County Administrator Patrick Rutter.

Palm Beach County is among 37 counties selected to receive funding through DEO’s Rebuild Florida General Planning Support Program.

The Office of Resilience will be coordinating this project. For more information, please contact Resilience Director Megan Houston at MSHouston@pbcgov.org.

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