As hurricane season draws near in 2025, residents of Gulfport, Florida, are still facing confusion in cleaning up the mess of last year’s devastating storms .
What’s happening?
Following major weather events, recovery involves an intensive damage assessment, designed to decide which homes can be restored and which are beyond saving. According to WFLA News Channel 8 , city officials in Gulfport believe the state contractor in charge of these assessments has caused delays with incorrect evaluations.
The contracted company, Tidal Basin, was mainly tasked with issuing substantial damage determination letters, a federal mandate from FEMA that establishes if repairs exceed 50% of the property’s value, according to WFLA. Major alleged discrepancies in their assessments, however, have led to months of delays for displaced homeowners.
“We spent a tremendous amount of time redoing letters that were off-base or incorrect,” Gulfport’s newly elected mayor, Karen Love, told WFLA. “The most pain that comes from that is people have been out of their homes for seven or eight months.”…