Attorney General Jeff Jackson visited Fayetteville on Tuesday to highlight the more than $200 million in resiliency funding for North Carolina that FEMA canceled.
One of North Carolina’s 60 canceled projects is a $15.4 million initiative to replace four bridges and restore streams along Blount Creek in Fayetteville. Another would have directed $2.6 million toward flood risk reduction along Wayland Drive.
Both projects aim to address flooding from increased rainfall and storms, and to prevent future washouts that leave roads impassable—especially in areas still recovering from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018.
In early 2024, one of the bridges spanning Blount Creek on the southwest-bound lane of East Russell Street, near Old Wilmington Road, was also damaged by fire.
In July, Jackson joined 20 other states in suing FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that the agency’s termination of funding from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program was unlawful. The complaint, filed in federal court, argues that FEMA violated congressional mandates by refusing to spend funds already appropriated for mitigation and attempting to divert them elsewhere. It also claims that the officials who shut down the program lacked legal authority to do so.
“What I need people to understand is that Fayetteville was told they were approved for this money, so they started spending their own money in anticipation of getting the rest,” Jackson said while visiting the bridge at Person and Russell streets.
“They’re spending millions of dollars to lay the groundwork and do all the engineering and the planning in reliance on FEMA keeping their word. So we’re taking FEMA to court to make sure that they keep their word and Fayetteville gets the funds that they were promised.”
Mayor Mitch Colvin said the city has already spent $3 million of the $15.4 million awarded. “We’ve signed a number of contracts and obligated the taxpayers here in the city to uphold that,” he told reporters. “This will have a huge impact.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit won a preliminary injunction that temporarily freezes the BRIC funds, preventing FEMA from reallocating them while the case proceeds. The next step is to seek a summary judgment that would compel FEMA to restore the program and release the funds.
Jackson said he was confident a judge will rule in favor of the states. “Congress was very clear. They told FEMA, here is how we want you to spend this money … and then places like Fayetteville relied on FEMA’s approval and only started spending money once the approval had come in. You add all that together and it is a very strong legal argument.”
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com.
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