Recovery

FEMA records show only about 100 applications for the Continued Temporary Housing Assistance program have been turned in, but as many as 1,500 could be eligible in Montgomery County, said a FEMA voluntary agency liaison.

Lakeland has only gotten a small slice of the more than $1.02 billion FEMA said it’s paid to state and local governments for the 2017 storm. The city has only received about $435,000 back — or about 2.4% of its expenses.

The Bahamian government is working with search and rescue teams to reach communities isolated by flood waters and clear debris left after the hurricane slammed the northern Bahamas last week with 185 mph winds.

The center of the storm made landfall at 8:35 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The storm crept back into Category 3 status briefly on Thursday, but has been diminishing since it began its northward run.

Officials with most local governments said something along the same lines after Dorian’s passage. The hurricane passed by the Golden Isles early Thursday morning, skimming the coast and leaving little damage in its wake.

Dorian “brushed” North Carolina’s coast late Thursday after flooding South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said. At 2 a.m., the National Weather Service said the storm’s center will “move near or over the coast.”

The cyclone now has winds of 110 mph and was moving north-northeast at 8 mph. At 2 p.m., the cyclone was located approximately 115 miles south-southwest of Wilmington, N.C., according to the National Hurricane Center.

After pounding the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, killing at least 20 people, the erratic storm weakened early in the week only to pick up strength briefly overnight Wednesday and then weaken again.

On the coast, the gusts could get as high as 75 to 85 mph, and for eastern Virginia and inland northeastern North Carolina gusts as high as 55 to 65 mph, the National Weather Service said in its morning briefing.

Some tropical storm winds and heavy rainfall are likely to begin in the Myrtle Beach area Wednesday night. The most severe forecasts, including storm surge to 8 feet, are likely late on Thursday.

The Category 2 hurricane’s 105 mph sustained winds and 10 to 15 inches of predicted rain promise to cause widespread flooding and power outages across large parts of North Carolina and South Carolina.

At least seven people have died and many more have been reported missing as a result of Dorian, which decimated most of the homes in Marsh Harbour, the capital of Great Abaco, and wiped out a shantytown called The Mudd.

Real estate development continues in floodplains, but at higher elevations mandated by new city and county rules, and the region is setting new records for home sales, including many properties that flooded during Harvey.

The fund provides qualified homeowners in Greene, Miami and Montgomery counties with grants up to $20,000 to repair, rebuild or replace homes and renters up to $5,000 toward the purchase of a new home.

Hurricane Irma grazed the Golden Isles in September 2017, and nearly two years after the fact, some are still feeling the aftermath. HUD set aside roughly $8 million to help residents in three ZIP codes with new repairs.