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FEMA, Alabama state agency approve nearly $500K in rebuilding grants

August 29, 2011 |

The Alabama Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have approved almost half a million dollars in grants for rebuilding projects that help disaster-affected areas reduce future loss of life and property.

The state administers the grants, totaling more than $491,000, which are funded through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The first four grants to be funded include two in DeKalb County, one in Marshall County and one in Bibb County.

In DeKalb County, grants will fund four individual safe rooms and a fixed generator for the city of Fort Payne. The Marshall County grant will fund a generator for the Northeastern Alabama Water System in Langston. The Bibb County grant will fund a community safe room in the Eoline community near Centreville.

“These grants will help several communities in their recovery,” said Art Faulkner, director of AEMA.

“This may be the most rapid turnaround for HMGP funding in FEMA’s history,” said Federal Coordinating Officer Michael Byrne of FEMA in a written statement from the agency. “The process went quickly because AEMA and FEMA established such a strong partnership early in the process and the state of Alabama was so proactive in planning.”

FEMA also approved up-front funding for management costs, allowing the state to hire and train grant reviewers earlier in the process. Then, as grant applications came in from communities throughout the state, reviewers were already in place to handle them.

“Alabama EMA is committed to building Alabama safer and better, and seeing these grants awarded so rapidly shows FEMA’s vested interest in Alabama’s future,” Faulkner said.

One of the first four approved grants funds individual safe rooms in the DeKalb County communities of Crossville, Mentone, Henagar and Boaz. The federal share of the total estimated cost for the four safe rooms is $17,259.