FEMA Dollars May Not Be Enough to Rebuild Pier, State Emergency Chief Guthrie Tells Flagler Officials

It was something of a homecoming for Guthrie, who’d served as Flagler County’s emergency management director between 2013 and 2016, and would have served longer, possibly in higher roles, had the County Commission had the foresight to know what it had in him. It did not.

Guthrie left, and began making his way up the hierarchy of the state emergency division. Day after day as Hurricane Ian was bearing down on the state, then crushing its way across the peninsula, Guthrie stood alongside the governor in press conferences, providing updates and–intentionally or not–keeping the governor unusually focused on nothing but the emergency.

After the governor and the whirring cameras left Flagler Beach on Oct. 16, Guthrie stayed behind and held an informal meeting with city and county officials. Guthrie laid out what he called a 10,000-foot plan for Flagler as he spoke with the officials around the table at City Hall, among them Flagler County’s Emergency Management Director, Jonathan Lord (as effective an emergency manager as the county has ever had), Flagler Beach Mayor Suzie Johnston, City Manager William Whitson and County Commissioner Andy Dance.

Flagler Beach officials have been banking on Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) money to cover the cost of the demolition of the ravaged pier and its reconstruction as an 800-foot concrete pier. (See: “Dangerous Flagler Beach Pier Is Condemned, Demolition Moved Up As Hazards Worry City Officials.”) But Guthrie had a surprise for them. FEMA money, even when reimbursements from Hurricane Matthew and Ian are combined, may not be enough. Whitson is estimating the cost at $15 to $18 million.

“Getting back out to 800 feet,” Guthrie said, the length of the pier officials want to restore, “that’s going to have to be a Hutson-Renner combo one two, to get you back out to that,” he said, referring to Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Paul Renner, who represent Flagler County at the Legislature. Renner is to be the Speaker of the House when the session convenes next year. Looking at the project as needing that extra legislative push had not been part of the Flagler Beach city commission’s approach, nor its public discussions.

“Today, mayor, you and your city manager, your lobbyist, everybody needs to start thinking about: there’s going to have to be a member project, so your construction manager, your project manager for the pier, needs to be thinking” along those lines, Guthrie told the officials.

A “member project” is a more diplomatic way of saying pork. Legislators can file bills to pay for pet appropriation projects in their districts. Local officials lobby for those every year. The pier has not been on those wish lists, though dune restoration has. The lobbyists, Guthrie was now saying, must understand that “there’s a Matthew piece, there’s an Ian piece, and then there’s a state funded piece that’s got to be applied for.”




There are some benefits the city can take advantage of. “This is going to be a 90-10 storm instead of a 75-25 storm,” he said, projecting $3.4 billion in federal recovery dollars heading Florida’s way. In other words, the federal government will reimburse 90 percent of storm-related costs. That presumably goes for pier reconstruction as well. Even with the federal government kicking in 90 percent, “the state still kicks in 5 percent,” Lord said, leaving the local share to just 5 percent.

Tourism officials were not around the table, but Flagler Beach is also a likely front-runner for a Tourist Development Council capital grant that could approach the million-dollar mark, to use as part of its pier reconstruction fund. In an astounding instance of poor planning, the city missed out on any portion of a three-quarter-million dollar grant that was up for grabs this year, simply because it failed to apply for it. The entire amount went to Palm Coast to help build a sports community complex.

Guthrie urged the officials to keep copious accounts of all spending, filling in place-holders if necessary, but to keep moving forward with such things as design of the new pier and, if possible, to start construction. Last week the city commission agreed to condemn the pier, which was made unsafe for any uses by Ian, and to accelerate the demolition schedule. (See: “Dangerous Flagler Beach Pier Is Condemned, Demolition Moved Up As Hazards Worry City Officials.”)

Guthrie’s staff also addressed the ravaged dunes system up and down Flagler’s 18 miles of beaches. Repairing that system will be several times more expensive than rebuilding the pier. (See: “Catastrophic Loss: Dunes All But Gone Along Flagler’s 18-Mile Shore, Leaving A1A and Properties Dangerously Exposed.”) One of Guthrie’s retinue–several members of his staff were in the room–said the county needs to be looking at “emergency protective measure,” such as an emergency berm, filing for relief to pay for that immediately. But it’ll be competing with what Guthrie described as 7,000 ongoing missions resulting from Ian’s devastation across the state.




“Obviously we’ve got extensive damage from key West to Flagler County, so I’m trying to get myself here more, but the catastrophic damage in Fort Myers is just unfortunate,” he said, summarizing his talk with officials: “I think we’ve got path forward on trying to make something happen. I think everybody understands: Matthew, Ian, something else, which is going to involve the senator and representative on getting that something else, then we talked beaches, we talked berms, and then we talked facilities.”

Guthrie will return to Flagler yet again to be the keynote speaker at Flagler Tiger Bay’s November 16 lunch at Channel Side in Palm Coast, at 12:30 p.m. He will describe his experience managing the state through Hurricane Ian and share his advice with local officials. The informal roundtable in Flagler Beach was a preview of his talk.

And, Guthrie pledges, he will return to Flagler for good when his time is up in Tallahassee. “I love this town. I love the city and I cannot wait to come back here one day,” he said. “I said when I retire I’ll be back in Flagler, I promised that,” he said, as long as his “place” was still available.