A year after the Trump Administration attempted to halt funding for some resiliency programs, the Federal Emergency Management Administration announced almost $20 million in flood mitigation grants around the Southeast.
The funding for projects in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina is part of more than $250 million that FEMA said it will spend on 100 flood mitigation projects around the country, the agency said in a bulletin.
The Southeast projects include properties near the coast as well as inland:
- $2.3 million to elevate six properties in Santa Rosa County, in the Florida Panhandle. Elevating the most flood-prone structures reduces the risk of flood losses, essential home repairs, and emergency sheltering for those families, said FEMA, which manages the National Flood Insurance Program.
- $1.5 million for the acquisition and demolition of four properties in Hoover, Alabama, near Birmingham. Two of the homes were covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, and their demolition will eliminate future claims on these properties.
- $460,887 to fund phase one of flood mitigation efforts in Madison County, Mississippi, a suburb of the capital city of Jackson. The project is aimed at reducing some stormwater runoff problems in the county.
- $416,200 to Kentucky for the acquisition and demolition of five properties in Wayland. These are NFIP sites deemed to be severe repetitive loss properties.
- $162,000 to South Carolina for the elevation of one NFIP repetitive loss property on Hilton Head Island.
Climatologists and insurance loss researchers have argued that removing or elevating flood-prone properties, as well as taking wind-mitigation and hardening measures, are the most cost-effective ways to reduce losses from increasing floods, storm surge and hurricane winds.
But the Trump administration in 2025 canceled the resiliency funding, calling it “wasteful and ineffective,” according to news .
After 22 states filed suit, a federal judge in December held that FEMA cannot eliminate the appropriated funding for the resiliency program, and ordered FEMA to reverse course. In March of this year, FEMA leadership said the agency will make $1 billion available for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which is designed to help state and local governments prepare for fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.
Photo: A scene from flooding in Kentucky in recent years. (AdobeStock)
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