Overview:
• Fayetteville plans to use the money to replace four bridges and improve 4,000 feet of Blounts Creek
• It also plans to build infrastructure to direct stormwater away from a flood-prone residential and commercial area
• FEMA said the national program is "wasteful and ineffective"
President Donald Trump’s administration was wrong, a federal judge said last week, to cancel $18 million in flood prevention money intended for Fayetteville, plus $120,000 for disaster mitigation in Cumberland County.
Nationwide, the Trump administration this year tried to stop nearly $4.5 billion in grants for projects to prevent or mitigate damage from natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and tornados, The Associated Press reported. This included more than $200 million for North Carolina projects.
North Carolina is one of 22 states plus the District of Columbia that sued to get the money back. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of Massachusetts ruled in the states’ favor.
Projects to Reduce Flooding in Fayetteville
If Stearns’ ruling holds, Fayetteville will receive $15.4 million to help pay for its $23 million Person & Russell Street Bridge and Stream Restoration project. Blounts Creek had heavy flooding during Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which washed away a chunk of Gillespie Street near downtown Fayetteville.
The project would replace four bridges on Russell Street and Person Street with longer ones that are less likely to be washed away in heavy flooding. And it would make flood mitigation improvements along 4,000 feet of the creek.
(One of the bridges on Russell Street has been closed since it was damaged beyond repair by a fire in late 2023. The grant was sought before that fire.)
Fayetteville would also get $2.6 million for the city’s $3.6 million Wayland Drive Flood Risk Reduction project. This would build ditches, storm sewers, and a stormwater retention basin to direct stormwater away from a flood-prone residential and commercial area.
Cumberland County was tapped to receive $120,000 for a Vegetative Waste and Emergency Debris Management study. The county was to contribute another $37,500. The county sought the study to help it improve how it handles plant waste generated by Cumberland County homes and businesses after a major storm produces a vast amount of this kind of debris.
“If funding is released in accordance with the court’s decision, we intend to proceed as planned,” county commissioners Chair Kirk deViere said. “Our focus remains on responsible planning and ensuring Cumberland County is prepared to respond quickly and safely when disasters occur.”
The BRIC Program
These grants come from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, known as BRIC. Congress and Trump passed a law in 2018 to create the BRIC program for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Trump’s FEMA tried to shut off the money in April.
“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” a spokesperson said in a news release. “It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
The judge said Congress and the president have not passed a new law to cancel the BRIC program, so it was illegal for the Trump administration to cut off the funding.
“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives. It need not be gainsaid that the imminence of disasters is not deterred by bureaucratic obstruction,” Stearns wrote in his ruling.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson visited Fayetteville in October and met with Mayor Mitch Colvin to call attention to the lawsuit against the Trump administration.
“We won this case because FEMA tried to take back $200 million that it had already designated for North Carolina,” Jackson said in a news release last week. “Our towns spent years doing everything FEMA asked them to do to qualify for this funding, and they were in the middle of building real protections against storms when FEMA suddenly broke its word.”
DeViere, the county commission chair, is glad that the state prevailed.
“Protecting those resources is critical, not just here, but in, I’m sure, some of our adjoining counties and some of these small rural communities that need those funds,” he said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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