Freeze placed on FEMA funds
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 18, 2017 5:50 AM
Concerns expressed earlier this month by Wayne County commissioners that recent disasters will drain money away from North Carolina have proven prophetic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency Thursday froze funding until further notice for Public Assistance projects and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program because of low funding in the Disaster Relief Fund as the result of the "recent large disasters."
State officials who informed counties and municipalities about the freeze did not have any information as to how long it would last.
This freeze affects the entire nation and not just N.C. and Hurricane Matthew projects, Michael Sprayberry, director, N.C. Emergency Management, wrote in an email to the county.
Despite the freeze, commissioners Tuesday morning will still apply for an $8,994,653 FEMA Hurricane Matthew Hazard Mitigation Grant to purchase up to 88 homes damaged as a result of the storm.
"In the letter he is saying keep sending them in," County Manager George Wood said. "We want to get them in so when we get the money we are ready to go.
"We have got to get the paperwork up there and get everything done so when FEMA sends the money to the state of North Carolina, we are in line. That is what we are doing."
Commissioners also are expected to discuss state funding for buyouts and elevations related to Hurricane Matthew.
The meeting will get underway at 8 a.m. with an agenda briefing followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
"We are hopeful that Congress acts quickly to replenish this fund, but don't have a timeline as to when this will happen," Sprayberry said in his email. "In the meantime, we wanted to commit to you that the NCEM recovery staff is working to ensure that when these funds are released, the obligation of your Public Assistance (PA) project worksheets will be executed in a timely manner -- we will continue to work them.
"PA projects for which you have already received an award letter notifying that your project has been obligated, payments and management of these projects will continue as normal."
The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program will also continue to work to submit all Hurricane Matthew applications in an expedited manner, in collaboration with FEMA partners at the Joint Field Office, he wrote.
The Joint Field Officer and Region IV staff will continue to review submitted Hazard Mitigation Grant Program applications and await for availability of funding in the Disaster Relief Fund.
The county originally applied for $35 million through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The $35 million was for 331 applications that included 24 for elevation, none of which were accepted, and 307 for acquisition of which only 85 were accepted by the state.
Statewide there are about 2,800 buyouts on top of the 800 in the initial round of applications, Wood said.
Once purchased, the home sites will be cleared of any structures and thereafter maintained as permanently protected open space.
During commissioners' Sept. 5 session, Wood said the state needs another $200 million on top of what already has been obligated to pay for all of the buyout and house elevation applications the state received in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
However, because of the devastation left by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, any additional money from FEMA could be in doubt, he said at that meeting.
If the additional funding does not materialize, it would be up to the state to decide whether or not to provide it, he said.
"We have about $144,000 that we are waiting reimbursement on," Wood said Friday afternoon. "That is the public assistance. That is money that the county spent. It might have been to repair some of our facilities or pay or some of our people or that sort of thing."
All but $7,000 of that $144,000 has been committed, he said. Money that has been committed through that program will still be paid as normal, Wood said.
"Basically, I don't think we are out anything," he said. "But it is going to be a delay. Congress has got to appropriate more money. They are trying to commit money to them (Hurricanes Harvey and Irma relief). They haven't fully committed all of the money we need yet, and ours is a year old.
"That was the concern I expressed -- were we going to get left holding the bag on the extra $200 million we need statewide to buy out all of these properties."