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FEMA to award millions worth of grants to CNMI govt
Various grants and funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will soon be made available to the Commonwealth.
Without disclosing an exact amount, FEMA coordinating officer Stephen M. DeBlasio Sr. said a grant will be awarded for long-term disaster case management.
“Soon we will be awarding a grant to the CNMI government and then they will be able to have a provider do a longer disaster case management,” DeBlasio told Saipan Tribune.
He said the grant is currently under congressional review.
“Right now it’s under congressional review because it’s over a million dollars. Anything over a million dollars goes to congressional review,” DeBlasio said.
“It’s not an approval process; that’s our call to make. But they just need to know before we push it out publicly,” he added.
DeBlasio said the grant information may be released as soon as Monday.
Currently, FEMA has an interagency agreement with the American Red Cross NMI Chapter with their immediate disaster case management.
404 mitigation grant
Another funding that will be available to the CNMI government is the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which is authorized under Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
Unlike the 406 mitigation program, which enables infrastructures that had typhoon-related damage to rebuild stronger, the 404 mitigation funds can be applied on all three islands of the CNMI and even to projects not related to the disaster.
According to DeBlasio, the grant is based on a percentage—about 15 percent—of the total expenditure of the disaster.
“It’s going to be about $13 million that will be presented to the CNMI government and they will pick projects not related to damage experienced from Soudelor. It doesn’t have to be disaster-related,” DeBlasio said.
He said the funding could go on for years and doesn’t have to be immediately spent.
“They are already looking at projects. What they do is they get a notice of intent from the applicant who applies through the CNMI government, and the CNMI government reviews the projects and they make decisions on what projects they want to fund and there is a cost-share, which will be 10 percent,” he said.
