On September 10, 2019, the Centralina Economic Development District (CEDD) hosted a Disaster Recovery and Economic Resilience workshop designed for the Centralina counties that received a disaster declaration for Hurricanes Florence and Michael. Federal and State partners presented how they can assist with disaster recovery and other community needs. EDA investment assistance has become available for the implementation of economic recovery strategies and resilience projects. Read below why you should consider applying for funds and how to go about it.

Why Economic Development and Disaster Relief?

The benefits of mitigation projects far exceed the cost of potential disaster recovery: federally funded flood mitigation efforts see a seven times return on investment (FEMA Fact Sheet). More specifically, 23 years of flood mitigation cost the federal government $11.5 billion, whereas the benefits were $82 billion. The benefits were quantified by calculating reductions in human cost, repair cost, loss of revenue and business interruption, loss of economic activity, loss of service, and more. Other disaster mitigation projects funded by the federal government, on average, save $6 per $1 spent (National Institute of Building Sciences, 2017).

The Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves study (National Institute of Building Sciences, 2017) finds that every dollar spent on federally funded riverine flood mitigation in the past 23 years has returned seven dollars in benefits. See the image below for all regions that are impacted by flooding when rivers exceed their capacity.

Funding

Nineteen Federal Agencies received appropriations under HR 2157: The Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 to help communities affected recovery from impacts of natural disasters.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) published its Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in August of 2019, under EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) disaster recovery program. The NOFO makes $587 million available to eligible applicants in communities that were struck by natural disasters in 2018 and floods and tornadoes in 2019. Municipalities in the following Centralina counties are eligible: Anson, Cabarrus, Iredell, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties. .

The funding is intended to support long-term economic recovery strategies (non-construction and construction projects, as appropriate) to address economic challenges in the wake of an incident. Applicants must incorporate principles for enhancing the resilience of the community or demonstrate the project’s integrated resilience principles.

We can help you

CEDD staff can help you assess and develop a strategy that will allow your community to access relevant resources, such as EDA Disaster Funding.

CCOG staff can assist with:

• Project development
• Resource identification
• Grant writing and administration
• Connecting with Federal and State agencies

Eligible public projects could include but are not limited to water and sewer system improvements, industrial park infrastructure (construction), and economic diversification strategies, site-specific feasibility studies and supply chain analysis (non-construction).

If you have any questions related to project development for disaster recovery efforts or resiliency planning, please contact Victoria Avramovic at vrittenhouse@centralina.org or Mike Manis at mmanis@centralina.org.