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A hurricane blows through.

You’re fortunate enough to escape serious damage but others are not.

The government makes money available to assist those who’ve suffered.

Should you apply for some of that money to buy a set of hurricane shutters?

Of course you shouldn’t.

County officials say they won’t, either.

The county will apply for millions of state and federal dollars to help with the construction of a sturdy new emergency operations center, but the money wouldn’t come from the multibillion-dollar pot of hurricane relief recently approved by Congress.

After last year’s record-setting hurricane season, a variety of aid programs have been set up by the state and national governments.

Florida’s aid package, embodied in House Bill 7121, states, “The legislature finds that there is a compelling need for improvements in infrastructure, as identified during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, in order to better protect the residents of this state. The legislature shall make funds available to local and state agencies ... for the purpose of ... constructing or improving county Emergency Operations Centers.”

That language is all the cue Collier County’s emergency management officials needed to go after a grant to help with the county’s new EOC, according to Jim von Rinteln, emergency management coordinator. While $45 million will be available for EOC construction statewide, von Rinteln said Collier will most likely apply for about $6 million to go toward the construction of its new center, which will be built near Lely Elementary School. When first proposed more than a year ago, the center carried an estimated cost of $42 million. Von Rinteln said the eventual price will probably be higher, as construction costs continue to rise.

The money available through Florida House Bill 7121 is not to be confused with the much larger hurricane aid package passed by the U.S. Congress. That money, in the $20 billion range, is intended for victims all along the Gulf Coast.

Florida will receive some of the federal assistance, but the biggest share will go to Louisiana and Mississippi, said Thomas Bean, communications director for U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

The money that does come to Florida will be targeted primarily to farmers hit hard by Hurricane Wilma, Bean said.

But that’s not to say the county can’t get federal help in building its EOC. FEMA has a Hazard Mitigation Grant program that provides money to local governments to, among other things, minimize future hurricane damage. Collier will apply for about $2 million from that program, von Rinteln said.

Grants or no grants, the county intends to break ground on the new EOC in the fall. The plan is to have it open by June 2008, just in time for hurricane season.

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Correcting something from my Sunday column. Collier County Emergency Medical Services medical director Dr. Robert Tober expressed dismay at the recent trend toward EMS employees leaving for jobs at the North Naples Fire Department. The number to have done so is around five, rather than the “dozens” I reported.

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E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com