PALMETTO, Fla. — After what officials have described as catastrophic damage from Hurricane Milton, Seaport Manatee is getting some much-needed money to begin repairs.
Gov. Ron Desantis presented a $9.5 million check at a news conference in Palmetto where several state and local elected officials joined him.
According to officials, SeaPort Manatee took on a considerable amount of damage which impacted the overall supply chain for the state, including gas supplies.
Damage to Seaport Manatee also included a loss of 10 out of 13 warehouses, three of the 10 docking facilities and two office buildings.
The storm also pushed a lot of sand into the waterways and destroyed some perimeter fencing.
"The uninsured losses of the port include repairs needed for three damaged berths, new dredging is required, and state waters repairs necessary for port security and access systems and significant damage to the port container yard," Gov. Ron Desantis said.
The state estimates a loss of $200 million after the facility was ground to a halt by the storm.
"At Seaport Manatee we move an awful lot of Delmonte products, they're one of our largest and oldest customers, and they lost 1000 pallets of fruit in the storm. We also have wood pulp, which is our largest export and that's our largest warehouse houses Wood so we're hoping to get that warehouse back online. It's some capacity so we can continue exporting," said Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Manatee County Commissioner.
The state funds would go toward quickly effecting the needed repairs to those damaged structures amongst other things.
"This investment will include $5.5 million for emergency berth repairs and dredging and state waters, $3.5 million for immediate security needs and access control, and $500,000 to support planning activities for fortifying port infrastructure," Desantis said.
In addition, the state's pushed out 2.5 million gallons of petroleum product reserve, including around 300,000 gallons from Port Manatee despite the disruption to the fuel supply chain.
"Trans Montaigne is our fuel distributor. They had 6 feet of water in their site in the stormwater system. Public Utilities brought in pumps and we dewatered it. The time of the initial timeline was two days to the water. We were able to de-water it in nine hours at one point we were told on Saturday was going to be 5 days before we could get fuel back online. The county came in the state came in gave us all the resources that we needed and 18 hours later we had fuel rolling out of Manatee County," Ostenbridge. said.
"We want to ensure minimal interruption to the supply chain as possible. When you have major damage, they're just is going to be some interruption, we understand that," Desantis said.
There are now also a total of 12 state-run distribution sites for free gas which will be open till 7 p.m. while the operation lasts.