Governor Roy Cooper shared the following comment after the federal register was published for $168 million in hurricane recovery mitigation funds for North Carolina. Congress passed the mitigation funding on February 9, 2018 to help communities affected by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 become stronger and more resilient.
The Federal Register governing this funding directs North Carolina on what kinds of projects are eligible, and the state can start the federally-mandated process to access the funds. This includes developing a State Action Plan and submitting it for public comment and approval by HUD. The state is still awaiting Federal Registers for all CDBG-DR funds associated with Hurricane Florence.
“It’s good the federal government has made these funds available to us with more flexibility so we can better protect our communities from future storms,” Cooper said. “However, this is money for a storm that hit almost three years ago, and we must keep pushing Washington to make this process quicker and more effective."
Governor Cooper met last month with federal officials in Washington, DC, to highlight the need for quicker publishing of federal registers for disaster recovery funding. The Raleigh News and Observer reported on the Governor’s meeting in Washington here.
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