The Trump administration is canceling a popular grant program that has given states and communities billions of dollars to protect against natural disasters, according to an internal document obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
This will adversely affect key infrastructure projects in Grays Harbor County including the long-awaited North Shore Levee project and the Westport tsunami tower.
Grays Harbor County District 3 Commissioner Vickie Raines said, “And just like that … years of due diligence and hard work to move the North Shore Levee flood protection projects forward — now down the drain, only to see the $50 million FEMA BRIC grant clawed back by the Trump administration. This is devastating to Grays Harbor County.”
Federal Emergency Management Agency acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote in a memo Thursday the agency will not allocate the $750 million that was planned this year for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants. The BRIC program funds local projects that reduce damage from flooding, tornadoes and other weather-related events.
In a statement Friday morning, FEMA called BRIC “another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with climate change than helping Americans (affected) by natural disasters.”
In August of 2022, the cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen were awarded a $50 million BRIC grant to help fund the $94 million project. At the time, Willie Nunn, director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 10, said that when the levee was finished, the project would stop floodwaters, promote future investments, create affordable housing and jobs and foster economic development.
“It will also remove about $1.2 million of flood insurance premiums from the community,” Nunn said in 2022. “It will protect 3,100 properties, and 994 businesses. Also, it’s important to say economic growth will maintain 842 jobs and create new ones.”
The BRIC grant cancellation also includes the loss of close to $14 million for Westport’s proposed tsunami tower.
The Associated Press also reported, “In addition to ending the program going forward, FEMA said it was also cancelling all applications to the program from 2020 to 2023 and that money that was awarded as part of grants but not already distributed would be immediately returned to the federal government.”
The Daily World has reached out to the city administrators of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, Ruth Clemens and Brian Shay, respectively, for comment.
