Delaware Emergency Management Agency Issues Public Comment on FEMA Notice

WASHINGTON, May 16 -- The Delaware Emergency Management Agency, Smyrna, has issued a public comment on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's notice entitled "Hazard Mitigation Assistance: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities". The comment was posted on May 13, 2020:

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BRIC Public Policy Comments

* Section B.1 States and territories that have had a major disaster declaration under the 100 Stafford Act in the seven years prior to the annual application period start date are eligible to apply to FEMA for federal assistance under BRIC (applicants):

DEMA has serious concerns on this section and did not generally agree this would be entirely fair for Delaware. This is not an issue at present but could be potentially in the future and would disqualify projects in need. I know that Delaware sometimes do not meet eligibility criteria for disasters and we have avoided some direct hits by storms such as hurricanes. Thus I worry that this provision reduces our candidacy for funds. Further, it ignores the fact that climate change and development trends are increasing Delaware's vulnerability and exposure to storm impacts, making it more likely that we will see greater impacts or disasters in the future. Additionally, if Delaware go through another three years without a major disaster declaration then we would not meet the criteria but our risks to communities and infrastructure would be no different. If criteria is past on past history, it ignores future risk.

* Section C.4 Management Costs - FEMA may provide financial assistance to reimburse the recipient and subrecipient for eligible and reasonable indirect costs, direct administrative costs, and other administrative expenses associated with a specific mitigation measure or project in an amount up to 15 percent of the total amount of the grant award, of which not more than 10 percent of the total award amount may be used by the recipient and 5 percent by the subrecipient for such costs. Due to our frequent collaboration with the University of Delaware in diverse mitigation projects or activities, this provision may preclude university expertise from being sought considering universities (Specially UD) charge much more than 15% in indirect costs.

* Section D.2 Capability- and Capacity-Building Activities - In addition to the general minimum 167 criteria set forth in section D.1, all capability- and capacity-building activities 168 should result in a resource, strategy, or tangible mitigation product that will 169 reduce or eliminate risk and damage from future natural hazards, increase 170 resiliency and public safety, or promote a culture of preparedness. Resource and strategy is not properly defined through this policy and it seems open to interpretation to what could be best convenient for FEMA standard's, a clear and more specific definition would be useful for future projects under BRIC.

* Section D.3.f f. It must be in conformance with flood insurance requirements. If the project is located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), it must meet both of the following conditions: i. The project is in a jurisdiction participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). ii. The property owner obtains and maintains flood insurance for the life of the structure, regardless of transfer of ownership, in an amount at least equal to the project cost or to the maximum limit of coverage made available with respect to the mitigated property, whichever is 208 less.

This section caused a lot of concerns for DEMA as it seemed a little weak: couldn't FEMA do more to discourage investments in Special Flood Hazard Areas(SFHA) unless the structure cannot be relocated or is water-dependent? Invest in new construction in high-risk SFHA's should be discouraged. Many projects in Delaware involving elevating structures in very high risk eroding shorelines are simply unsustainable without additional investment. In other words, FEMA dollars are used to lift a house in a location that will become increasingly flood prone over time leading to the need for shore protection, utility/transportation hardening just to make the home site habitable. Public investments in locations such as these sends the message to both residents, as well as real estate markets, that retreat is not being considered when in fact no such long term management decisions are being made. Our hazard mitigation decisions should account for long term sustainability outlook, not run contrary to it. FEMA's BCA and alternatives analysis requirements do not require any such analysis, but should be taken into consideration.

General Comments:

* BRIC is supposed to have a special focus for long term sustainability outlook with these community-wide projects, but the policy needs a little bit of work. I have some concern with the funding mechanism since it will have less money than what PDM received previously, and finding funding commitments through other sources in these partnerships BRIC is pushing towards may be more complicated for Delaware.

* Other indicators of social vulnerability are not being considered through this policy. Beforehand FEMA would only use economically disadvantaged as the sole factor to determine vulnerability but there's a wide range of factors that determines social vulnerability besides the economic one. This document seems to be missing an opportunity to incentivize mitigation and capacity-building efforts for vulnerable populations - (Section A.4.c does offer a 90/10 cost share for economically disadvantaged small communities) but on the whole it misses other indicators of social vulnerability such as age (65yrs and over) disability, race. Could that cost share be extended to projects that address these other types of social vulnerability, or could cost-benefit calculations factor this somehow so that projects that support these populations have some edge?

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The notice can be viewed at: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FEMA-2019-0018-0001

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