Thanks to the Trump Administration, more money is flowing to American communities
Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced more than $137 million in funding to help states prevent damage from future disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and wildfires. These awards will help to fund more than 50 projects in 20 states and territories across the country. Under the empowering leadership of Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, FEMA is working through the backlog of funding requests with a renewed sense of urgency.
“State and local leaders know what their communities need better than anyone. That’s why FEMA is working to empower those leaders to carry out the projects that will have the most impact—instead of instituting a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the FEMA Administrator, Karen S. Evans. “We will continue to listen to and support these officials as they take the lead on disaster resilience and make the entire country safer.”
This funding will be distributed through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Post Fire, which helps state, territorial, tribal and local governments to complete activities and projects that enhance their resilience. Examples of projects selected for today’s announcement include:
- Acquisitions, Elevations and Floodproofing; Acquisition projects involve the community or other eligible entity purchasing homes and/or commercial structures and the underlying property, demolishing all structures and maintaining the property in open space. An elevation is where the home is raised so potential floodwaters may flow underneath.
- $825,000 to St. John’s County, Florida to provide flood protection to three single-family homes to reduce or eliminate potential future flood damages.
- Flood Control: These projects are designed to eliminate or reduce the frequency and severity of flood events. Flood sources for these projects could be coastal, riverine or rainfall events or a combination of any of those sources. This can include projects involving greenspace, water control systems such as channels or berms or other flood prevention projects which reduce flooding impacts to homes and communities.
- More than $3.1 million in Ipswich, Massachusetts to raise over a mile of roadway, reducing or eliminating low-lying flooding that happens frequently after larger storm events.
- More than $755,000 in Chagrin Falls, Ohio to help implement erosion control improvements and soil stabilization measures along the Chagrin River.
- Generators and Emergency Power: Funds can be used to purchase generators for a critical facility, such as police and fire stations, hospitals and water and sewer treatment facilities.
- More than $3.2 million to Puerto Rico for construction of a raised heliport concrete structure adjacent to a critical facility located in a remote mountainous area.
- More than $269,000 for South Carolina to fund six permanent generators for critical fire infrastructure throughout Horry County.
- Drainage and Stormwater Management: The projects typically include designing, constructing or updating water infrastructure, such as stormwater systems and street drainage to handle higher water volume.
- More than $338,000 in Sumter County, South Carolina for stormwater drainage improvements in a residential neighborhood to reduce the flood risk damage to more than a dozen homes.
- More than $239,000 in Santa Fe, New Mexico for surveying and completing the analysis to produce a detailed design for drainage improvements and to mitigate erosion and flood impacts along the Arroyo Torreon watershed.
- Infrastructure and Wind Retrofits: Retrofit projects are modifications to existing structures to reduce or eliminate the risk of future damage and to protect people. Retrofits can be structural or non-structural and can be done for a range of hazards.
- More than $9.2 million in Cape Coral, Florida to provide protection to the City Hall building against hurricane force winds such as replacing the roof and installing a permanent generator.
- Utility Protective Measures: These projects elevate, move or improve critical infrastructure, such as elevating a pumping station or enhancing power poles to resist fire and/or wind.
- More than $31 million in Cameron Parish, Louisiana to improve community resilience, support more grid circuits and increase the level of protection against the impacts of future storms. The project’s goal is to withstand higher winds and storm surges and allow for quicker power restoration.
- More than $3.8 million in Hawaii to upgrade the Energy Management System (EMS) platform for the Maui and Hawaiʻi electrical grids. EMS platforms are the backbone of electrical grids, enabling real time monitoring and control to quickly identify and triage threats and impacts to the electrical grid from natural hazards and vice-versa, potential threats to the community and environment from faulty electrical grid resources.
- More than $2.3 million in Anchorage, Alaska for the school district to install new ceiling grids in buildings to decrease injuries and loss of life from falling or swinging apparatuses during a seismic event.
- More than $664,000 in rural areas of South Carolina to relocate existing water lines that are currently attached to bridges and move these to underground pipes and conduits.
- Safe room projects are designed and constructed to provide immediate life-safety protection for people in public and private structures from severe wind events, including hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes. For FEMA mitigation grants, the term “safe room” only applies to structures that meet the criteria in FEMA P-361 Safe Rooms for Tornadoes and Hurricanes.
- More than $243,000 for Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana in additional funding to assess and conduct feasibility surveys for a multi-purpose two-story hurricane safe room. This structure will enhance community resilience and ensure the safety of vulnerable residents during extreme weather events, including landfall hurricanes.
- Management Costs: This includes indirect costs, administrative expenses and other expenses reasonably incurred by a grantee or subgrantee in administering and managing a grant award.
- More than $16.39 million will be provided to Maine, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas for the direct and indirect costs for mitigation projects in the aftermath of wildfires, Tropical Storm Debby, and severe storms and floods.
These projects are the latest in a round of new funding announced by FEMA. Taken together, FEMA has announced more than a billion dollars in disaster recovery and mitigation funding in the last three days alone.
For more information about these awards, visit FEMA.gov.