Crisfield among 93 jurisdictions nationwide awarded FEMA flood mitigation funding

WASHINGTON — FEMA on Wednesday announced that 93 local communities, tribes and territories across all 10 FEMA regions will receive non-financial Direct Technical Assistance to help build community-wide resilience through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program.

This more than doubles the number of recipients from last year. This announcement comes following the agency’s recent announcement on the 656 BRIC recipients.

This year, two 2021 Direct Technical Assistance communities — Crisfield, Maryland, and Eastwick in Philadelphia — were selected during the FY23 BRIC national competition for projects enhancing community climate resilience.

Crisfield was selected for a $36 million flood control project that will improve flood protection, stormwater management, and wetland health. Philadelphia was selected for a $2 million project that will install a flood barrier in Eastwick.

“FEMA is setting an example in the emergency management community by prioritizing benefits to historically underserved communities,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Administrator Victoria Salinas.

“Underserved communities have historically lacked resources to navigate the grant process. Through Direct Technical Assistance, FEMA directly works with these very communities to help advance their community-driven objectives and tap into valuable grants to become more resilient to increasing climate threats.”

This announcement aligns with the 2024 FEMA Year of Resilience theme to build capacity to withstand tomorrow’s hazards.

For more information about the flood mitigation project in Crisfield visit CrisfieldFloodMitigation.com .

Through Direct Technical Assistance, FEMA provides wide-ranging support to communities, territories and Tribal Nations that may not have the resources to begin climate resilience planning and project solution design on their own. This non-financial assistance helps jurisdictions to reduce disaster damage, build community resilience and sustain successful mitigation programs.

Selected communities, territories and Tribal National receive support for BRIC DTA from pre-application activities to grant closeout for up to 36 months.

The federal award for Crisfield represents 90% of the total project costs.