WASHINGTON — It's been thirty days since Hurricane Ian caused catastrophic devastation across southwest Florida. Thousands of federal responders remain on the ground helping communities pick up the pieces after the Category 4 storm. 

What You Need To Know

  • It's been a month since Hurricane Ian struck Florida

  • FEMA continues to work with residents to rebuild after the storm

  • More than 750,000 Florida residents have submitted claims so far

FEMA officials say it's "going to be one of the largest disaster recovery missions in recent history for the state of Florida." The agency continues to work with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to help devastated communities. 

"Within the first 30 days, we've already spent and issued about $1.5 billion to survivors, and to support the emergency protective measures that were implemented by the state," said Anne Bink, associate administrator with the FEMA Office of Response and Recovery.

More than 2,400 federal personnel remain on the ground. The agency is working with the state to speed up debris removal. FEMA and the state Division of Emergency Management are also working to set up temporary travel trailers and manufactured housing units for people who can no longer live in their homes.

These units are expected to become available next month. 

"While some folks would prefer to have a travel trailer or a housing unit on their property so they can continue to repair their home and re-enter that home, makes sense for a lot of folks," Bink said. "Where it doesn't, maybe a rental property does, or you know, being with family and staying with them. So it really depends on the survivors needs and we do see a wide, wide array of of needs."

Officials say the goal is to "close out" the disaster with FEMA within seven years. ​

"The seven years is really around not only the individual needs of residents and survivors post storm, but also the long term reconstruction and resilience efforts that we'll undertake with the state municipalities and other eligible applicants to make sure that as they rebuild their infrastructure," Bink said. "And some of that can take a significant amount of time because we're talking about major construction."

About 750,000 households have applied for FEMA assistance, and about 350,000 have already received some aid, officials said.

FEMA urges those who've not yet received help to visit a disaster recovery center, or to contact the helpline at 800-621-3362.