Public Money · Hurricane Michael

Where the Hurricane Michael money went

Hurricane Michael hit Bay County on October 10, 2018. Billions in federal, state and insurance money followed. This page tracks the public part: who received it, what it paid for, and what's still unclear.

FEMA data refreshed 2026-10-20
Research compiled Oct 20, 2026

The simple version

How disaster money works

FEMA pays governments back. After a disaster declaration, FEMA's Public Assistance program reimburses cities, the county, schools and some nonprofits for debris cleanup, emergency work and rebuilding public buildings. Each job is a "project" with its own paperwork.
FEMA helps households. Individual Assistance gives grants to homeowners and renters for repairs, temporary rent and other needs.
HUD funds the long rebuild. Congress later sent Florida disaster block grants (CDBG-DR), which the state handed out through "Rebuild Florida" for housing, infrastructure and downtowns.
Loans and insurance fill in. SBA disaster loans and flood insurance claims went straight to residents and businesses.

FEMA Public Assistance$988M765 projects for 79 Bay County applicants

FEMA aid to households$101.3MApproved for owners and renters

Rebuild Florida awards$93.3MHUD money to Bay governments, as announced

SBA disaster loans$396MApproved by Jan 2019 (early snapshot)

Who got FEMA rebuilding money

Federal share obligated, Public Assistance

FEMA paid 88% of the $1,125M in eligible costs on these projects. The rest came from the state and the local governments themselves. Another 445 projects ($852M, mostly state agencies) are coded "statewide," so FEMA's data doesn't say how much was spent in Bay County. OpenFEMA

What it paid for

Every FEMA project in Bay County

Applicant	Project	Type	Federal	First paid	Status

Help for households

FEMA Individuals and Households Program, by mailing city

"Registered" counts everyone who applied; "approved" counts those FEMA found eligible for any aid. Owners data · Renters data

Rebuild Florida (HUD) awards to Bay governments

Florida received $735.6M in HUD disaster block grants for Michael across the Panhandle. These are the announced awards to Bay County governments that we could confirm; housing repair spending in Bay County isn't broken out publicly. Federal Register

State money

2019 legislative session, as reported

Bay District Schools: $12,435,000
Bay County: $9,000,000 ($3.78M roads, $1.5M stormwater, $1.4M Sheriff storage facility/bunker, $1.35M building repairs, $550K emergency protective measures, $500K East Bay dredge)
City of Panama City: $3,000,000 ($2M Watson Bayou dredging, $500K Watson Bayou turning basin bulkhead, $500K roads/drainage)
City of Lynn Haven (road repairs): $1,000,000
City of Callaway (stormwater and roads): $1,000,000
City of Parker: $290,625
Housing: Local Government Housing Trust Fund (deductibles, repairs, re-entry) - regional, not Bay-only: $65,000,000
Housing: State Housing Trust Fund gap financing for affordable housing - regional, not Bay-only: $50,000,000
Grant pool managed by state emergency management for local governments - regional, not Bay-only: $25,000,000

From a news summary of the 2019 budget, not the budget law itself. The housing and grant-pool amounts covered the whole region. Source

Debris cleanup

The single biggest cost

FEMA debris money by government

Debris contracts we could confirm

City of Panama City: Crowder Gulf: $94,600,000 (approximate total city spending to remove all Hurricane Michael debris (final $2.1M payment approved Aug 2021)) Source
City of Panama City: Crowder Gulf: $2,100,000 (final debris-removal payment approved by commission) Source
Bay County (incl. work for Callaway, Springfield, Lynn Haven): AshBritt Environmental (prepositioned contract) (no dollar amount published in source; 750,000 cubic yards reported as of Nov 5, 2018) Source
City of Lynn Haven: not named (mayor projected a $30M-$34M debris hauling bill (range, not a contract amount)) Source
City of Lynn Haven: Erosion Control Specialists (ECS), owner David White: $1,800,000 (amount billed to and paid by city for trash pick-up the indictment alleges was unnecessary ($300/hour/crew), per DOJ allegation) Source
City of Lynn Haven: Erosion Control Specialists (ECS): $5,000,000 (approximate amount DOJ says city was defrauded of via fraudulent invoices (allegation at indictment)) Source
City of Lynn Haven: Phoenix Construction Services / James Finch ('Company B' in 2020 release): $2,000,000 ('more than $2 million' in vegetative debris disposal fees paid by city (per DOJ release)) Source

The Lynn Haven cleanup corruption case

From federal court filings and news coverage

Federal prosecutors charged Lynn Haven officials and contractors over storm cleanup billing after Michael. This is a timeline of what the Justice Department announced and what courts decided.

2018-10-16Lynn Haven adopted a local state of emergency after Hurricane Michael, delegating emergency contracting powers to the mayor or her designee; city entered an emergency agreement with Erosion Control Specialists (ECS) for clean-up (as described in DOJ release). Source
2019-11-2035-count indictment announced against former City Manager Michael Edward White, Community Services Director David Wayne Horton, ECS owner David Mitchelle White, Greenleaf Lawn Care owner Joshua Daniel Anderson, and Shannon Delores Rodriguez. DOJ alleged about $5 million in fraudulent invoices; examples included trash-pickup invoices of $332,387.76 and $479,020.68. Source
2020-08-19DOJ announced a 64-count indictment (returned Aug 18) of Mayor Margo Anderson and City Attorney Joseph Adam Albritton; alleged $1.8M billed for unnecessary ECS trash pickup, >$48,000 and $25,000 in private work at officials' homes billed as public work, and a $106,000 motorhome from 'Company B'. The release said all five 2019 defendants had pleaded guilty. Source
2021-03-18Superseding indictment charged developer David James Finch (Phoenix Construction Services) and former Commissioner Antonius Barnes; release says Lynn Haven paid Finch more than $2M in vegetative debris disposal fees. Source
2021-09-24Albritton pleaded guilty to wire fraud and honest services wire fraud; other charges dropped. Source
2021-10-07Barnes pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a federally insured institution; other charges to be dropped. Source
2023-02Anderson's plea agreement reduced charges to one felony count of lying to the FBI (as reported). Source
2023-03Finch's first trial ended in a mistrial (as reported). Source
2023-05-08Sentencing reported: Michael White and David White 42 months in prison each; Josh Anderson and David Horton one year probation including 9 months house arrest; Shannon Rodriguez one year probation. Pleas: M. White 4 counts (conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, 2 honest services wire fraud); D. White conspiracy, 2 wire fraud, false claim; Horton wire fraud; J. Anderson wire fraud; Rodriguez conspiracy and wire fraud. Source
2023-06-05Margo Anderson sentenced to one month in prison, one year probation, 100 hours community service. Source
2023-06Antonius Barnes sentenced (reported later as 45 days in prison). Source
2023-07-14Restitution reported: David White (ECS owner) ordered to pay $4,745,999; Michael White $55,000; David Horton $5,000. Margo Anderson not ordered to pay restitution. Source
2023-10-26Jury found James Finch not guilty on a federal program bribery charge in his retrial (alleged $5,000 check to Barnes, Dec 4, 2017). Source
2024-02-08Albritton, the last defendant, sentenced to one year probation and $31,000 restitution. Reported that every defendant except Finch pleaded guilty to at least one felony. Source

Sources and gaps

FEMA figures come from OpenFEMA's Public Assistance and housing assistance datasets for disaster DR-4399-FL. Amounts are the federal share FEMA has obligated (committed), which can still change as projects close out. HUD awards come from the Governor's announcements; state money from a news summary of the 2019 budget; SBA and flood insurance from FEMA's January 2019 Bay County fact sheet.

What we couldn't find (9)

OpenFEMA PA data has no street address or coordinates for projects, only county and applicant. Location is limited to applicant and project title.
Applicant names come from the PublicAssistanceApplicants dataset. Bay District Schools appears as 'School Board of Bay County Florida'. Bay County utilities appear inside city or county applicants, not as separate utilities.
FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) project-level awards for Bay County were not pulled. The disaster-wide HMGP total is included only from FemaWebDisasterSummaries.
CDBG-DR: no full DEO/FloridaCommerce list of every Michael subrecipient and amount was retrieved. Housing program (Rebuild Florida Hurricane Michael Housing Repair) spending in Bay County, later infrastructure rounds, and current drawdown or expenditure figures from HUD DRGR quarterly reports are missing. Hometown Revitalization amounts are rounded as published.
SBA loan, NFIP and early IHP figures for Bay are a January 2019 FEMA snapshot. Final SBA totals by county were not found.
Debris contracts: Bay County's AshBritt contract value, and the debris contractors and contract amounts for Lynn Haven, Callaway, Springfield, Parker and Mexico Beach, were not found in primary records. FEMA Category A obligations per government are included as a proxy for debris spending that was reimbursed.
2019 state appropriations come from a news summary, not the General Appropriations Act line items. The $115M housing and $25M grant pool are regional, not Bay-only.
Lynn Haven case: court docket numbers and original judgment documents (PACER) were not pulled. Barnes's exact sentencing date and David White's sentence are from news reports. One Feb 2024 article calls a defendant 'David Mickey', which appears to be ECS owner David 'Mickey' White, and the May 2023 report names him David White.
OpenFEMA data was refreshed through 2026; obligations can still change as projects close out.