The Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled nearly $11 million for projects aimed at making Columbus and Robeson counties more resilient to storms and flooding.
The cuts, which were announced in April, are part of more than $200 million in canceled funds for North Carolina and $882 million nationwide. State Attorney General Jeff Jackson said Wednesday he sued FEMA and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, joining 19 other states in a lawsuit asking for the money to be restored.
FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program provides money to states, local governments and Native American tribes to reduce communities’ risks during natural disasters.
Like much of southeastern North Carolina, Columbus and Robeson counties are still recovering from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. Both storms brought heavy rains and severe flooding. Local governments have focused on mitigating the risks of flooding through infrastructure projects.
In Whiteville, FEMA canceled nearly $3.7 million for the Mollie’s Branch stream restoration project. The plan includes the restoration of 5,100 feet along the stream, upgraded culverts and an expanded educational wetland center at the Central Middle School recreational complex.
City Manager Darren Currie said the project is crucial to keep the area from flooding. “It allowed for an almost once in a lifetime project to be completed over here,” he said.
Whiteville also got a $1.3 million grant from the state for the project. The Coastal Design Lab, an interdisciplinary project through North Carolina State University that tackles ecological cases, is working with city officials to find alternative funding sources.
“We’re not going to give up,” Currie said. “Hopefully we can cobble together the money to do it because it’s a good project.”
Lumberton is losing more than $1.9 million to build wetlands and paths along Meadow Branch, which has a history of flooding. The city already used a FEMA grant to buy and remove homes in the area and help residents relocate.
Brandon Love, deputy city manager for Lumberton, said the goal is to rebuild the stream so it can hold more water during heavy rainfalls. Plans for the project also include walking trails, parks or other greenspace.
“We want to make sure that we enhance the stream restoration so that it will help folks in the future, when we have these major rain events that we seem to be experiencing more and more often,” Love said.
Lumberton officials are working with the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management to consider other ways to fund the project, Love said.
Fairmont is set to lose $2.5 million in BRIC funds to relocate two pump stations that are vulnerable to flooding. They became inundated during Florence and Matthew.
“This flooding has led to extended service interruptions, damage to essential system components, and excessive amounts of extraneous flow entering the collection system, which contributes to downstream sewer overflows,” William Ray, North Carolina’s emergency management director, said in a court document.
Congress created the BRIC program in 2018, during Trump’s first term as president. It replaced the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program. Jackson said in a news release that canceling the funds, which were set to help about 70 projects across North Carolina, violates the U.S. Constitution
“This program, which the President helped establish and strengthen, was a lifeline for our towns and cities trying to make sure every resident has clean and reliable water to drink, a functioning sewage system, and measures in place to prevent the next storm from devastating their communities,” Jackson said.
In May, 90 bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter to FEMA asking for the BRIC money to be restored.
“BRIC funds are making communities safer in the next storm through projects like upgrading and protecting wastewater and drinking water plants after the facilities suffered repeated flooding, or bridge upgrades and road drainage improvements to improve driver safety,” the letter said.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, Democratic Rep. Don Davis, and Democratic Rep. Alma Adams signed from North Carolina.
Republican Reps. David Rouzer and Mark Harris, who represent Columbus and Robeson counties, did not sign the letter. Neither did Republican Sen. Ted Budd.
Paul Woolverton, a reporter for CityView, contributed to this report.
