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President Joe Biden will visit St. Petersburg on Sunday to survey the catastrophic impacts of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He will also announce over $600 million in funding to support damaged electrical grids.
Hurricane Milton made landfall near Sarasota and Siesta Key on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, just over 50 miles south of St. Petersburg.
Six Department of Energy projects will receive $612 million, two of which aid Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million to Switched Source to help bolster Florida Power & Light. The funding comes as part of Biden’s commitment to protect and upgrade the nation’s electrical grid.
Gainesville Regional Utilities will use its portion of the funds to help mitigate the impact of extreme weather events like Hurricane Milton. The utility company will focus on storm hardening and faster restoration during outages.
Switched Source will be working with FPL to help increase power capacity and create more reliable service in communities that see prolonged outages.
Biden traveled to Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas last week after Hurricane Helene pummeled the region.
MAIMI HERALD