A major federal disaster recovery grant designed to assist with recovery and mitigation efforts following hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 is funding a series of water and drainage infrastructure projects in Hillsborough County, Florida. The funds will support stormwater infrastructure improvements and assistance to homeowners affected by the storms.
The funding comes from a $709 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. About half of the allocation will be used to repair storm damage to channels, culverts, pump stations, and wastewater lift stations, as well as to fund projects that strengthen the area’s resilience against future storms, helping to prevent or reduce flooding for half a million residents. The remainder is largely directed at households whose properties were affected, with all investments limited to projects serving low and moderate-income communities or addressing urgent recovery needs.
Among the projects moving forward, $42 million targets the cleaning and restoration of drainage channels and ditches across the county, while $18 million will go toward upgrading 171 wastewater lift stations countywide, primarily through backup generator installations to maintain operations during storm-related power outages. A permanent stormwater pump station is planned at Shangri-La, alongside culvert renewal and repair across multiple sites and channel restoration at four locations. A further $9 million in neighbourhood-level drainage improvements had already been approved earlier in the year. Many projects are expected to enter the design phase as early as summer 2026.
The two storms presented distinct challenges. Helene, arriving in late September 2024, produced the most powerful storm surge the region had seen in decades, overwhelming coastal and riverside drainage. Milton struck less than two weeks later, delivering hurricane-force winds and up to 15 inches of rainfall that flooded inland neighbourhoods with little prior history of inundation. Together the hurricanes caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
