ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s been a week since Hurricane Milton but it’ll take months for storm victims like Hank Taylor in Cocoa Beach to recover.
“It was when I got to the front door, it started shaking back and forth. Around that time I said we gotta get out of here. That’s when we locked ourselves in the bathroom,” said Taylor.
Taylor and his wife survived with no injuries but their roof took a beating.
“We gotta get some better grade tarp for a couple of months. The tile we’re gonna be replacing my roofer just told me it’s probably gonna take 2-3 months,” said Taylor.
And Taylor’s not the only one.
“You also seen other people. We have a couple of other homes over here who took some bad damage,” said Taylor.
A free Florida program that offers protection for storm-damaged roofs is now available to residents in Central Florida counties whose homes have been damaged after Hurricane Milton.
Operation Blue Roof is available for residents in Brevard, Citrus, Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter and Volusia counties to apply for assistance.
The program offers “fiber-reinforced, industrial-strength sheeting to protect storm-damaged roofs until homeowners can make permanent repairs.”
Operation Blue Roof is managed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for FEMA.
“Operation Blue Roof protects property, reduces temporary housing costs, and allows residents to remain in their homes while recovering from the storm,” the website reads.
“We’ll hopefully get 200 roofs installed a day. However, due to the wide breadth of the storm, we may not realize that for a few days. We have 40 crews across Central Florida out working,” said Col. Brandon Bowman with Operation Blue Roof.
Bowman spoke about the program via Zoom while he was installing tarps in Sarasota. “It has to be a primary residence. It can’t be a secondary residence. If you have less than 50% structural damage to your roof. all you have to do is go online and fill out the form. Then we’ll do a virtual survey,” said Bowman.
Residents can apply through Tuesday, Nov. 5, by clicking here.
As what happened two years ago during Hurricane Ian, parts of Central Florida on Tuesday were flooding almost a week after Milton made landfall due to the rising St. Johns River.
Milton reached Category 5 with winds of 180 mph while still in the Gulf, but the storm encountered wind shear as it neared land that dropped it to a Category 3. At landfall, sustained winds were measured at 120 mph.
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