The Federal Emergency Management Agency in April canceled more than $18 million in funding for projects in Fayetteville and Cumberland County intended to reduce flooding and improve the disposal of debris during major storms.
On Wednesday, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and attorneys general from 19 other states sued FEMA and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to try to force FEMA to restore the money.
Nationwide, $882 million in funding was canceled, FEMA said in an April news release that has been removed from its website. This includes more than $200 million for projects in North Carolina, Jackson’s press office said on Wednesday.
New bridges, new storm sewer system lose funding
Jackson’s office said Fayetteville and Cumberland County were awarded, and then lost, three grants.
One was $15.4 million for Fayetteville’s $23 million Person & Russell Street Bridge and Stream Restoration project.
A state Department of Public Safety document says this is a five-year program on Blounts Creek. It would replace four bridges on Russell and Person streets with longer bridges that would be less likely to wash away when the creek floods. The project would also make improvements along 4,000 feet of Blounts Creek to mitigate flooding.
One of the bridges is the East Russell Street bridge that was damaged beyond repair by a fire in late 2023. The bridge has been closed since then, forcing a detour in the downtown area. This flood mitigation project would have replaced that bridge regardless of the fire (the grant was requested in the 2022 fiscal year). Now that the funding has been cut off, it’s not known when the bridge will be replaced.
Blounts Creek runs from the Douglas Byrd area and through the Massey Hill area to the downtown Fayetteville area. It washed out a bridge on Gillespie Street and caused other damage during Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The second grant was $2.6 million for Fayetteville’s $3.6 million Wayland Drive Flood Risk Reduction project, says a Department of Public Safety grant document.
Wayland Drive is off South Reilly Road near Cliffdale Road in western Fayetteville. The three-year project would build ditches, storm sewers and a stormwater retention basin to direct stormwater away from a flood-prone residential and commercial area.
The third grant was $120,000 to Cumberland County for a Vegetative Waste and Emergency Debris Management study. The county was to contribute another $37,500, spokesperson Diane Rice told CityView.
The study was to help the county make improvements in how it handles plant waste that Cumberland County homes and businesses discard, she said, and for when a major storm creates a large amount of debris. Plant waste is composted at the Wilkes Road Compost Facility, which Rice said has limited capacity.
Projects paused, delayed
“With the federal funding now paused, the study is on hold,” Rice said. “However, the County remains committed to pursuing innovative solutions for waste management and resilience.”
If the federal money isn’t restored, Fayetteville’s projects will have to be delayed, and the cost will shift to local taxpayers, Mayor Mitch Colvin told CityView on Wednesday.
“You can’t spend money you don’t have,” Colvin said. “We base our budget on commitments and promises made from our governmental partners on the state and federal level. Anytime they’re broken, it has an impact.”
Colvin said he hopes the flood prevention grants will be restored.
“When you talk about flooding, and some of these critical services … hopefully the administration and others will be able to look past politics and get the resources to their constituents,” he said. “Because, you know, everybody I represent is represented by the president and the Trump administration too.”
Trump created the program his administration is canceling
The grants came from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, known as BRIC, which FEMA launched in 2020 under President Donald Trump’s first administration.
FEMA in 2020 said BRIC was authorized under the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, which Trump signed into law in 2018 after the act was passed by the Republican-majority House and Republican-majority Senate.
“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,” Attorney General Jackson said on Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, FEMA had not responded to a request for comment that CityView sent on Wednesday.
While the BRIC program was created by the first Trump administration, the second Trump administration in April decided to scrap it.
“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” an unidentified FEMA spokesperson said in April in the now-deleted news release.
Republicans and Democrats want the money back
In May, 90 members of Congress, including Republicans and Democrats, sent a letter to Noem and 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 Richard Hudson, who represent Fayetteville and Cumberland County, did not sign the letter that asked for the BRIC money to be restored. Neither did Republican Sen. Ted Budd.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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