UPDATED April 6, 2025, 7:15 p.m.

Originally published April 4, 2025 at 5 p.m.

The Trump administration is canceling a popular grant program that has given states and communities billions of dollars to protect against natural disasters, according to an internal document obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.

This will adversely affect key infrastructure projects in Grays Harbor County, including the long-awaited North Shore Levee project and the Westport tsunami tower.

Grays Harbor County District 3 Commissioner Vickie Raines said, “And just like that … years of due diligence and hard work to move the North Shore Levee flood protection projects forward — now down the drain, only to see $84 million in FEMA BRIC grants clawed back by the Trump administration. This is devastating to Grays Harbor County.”

However, Reuters reported that “A federal judge ruled on Friday that Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration violated a court order by halting Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disbursement of millions of dollars in grant funding to states.”

The Reuters article also said, “A Homeland Security official in a statement described the ruling as coming from an ‘activist judge’ and said FEMA ‘will continue to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and for mission critical efforts.’”

According to a FEMA advisory issued Friday, “FEMA is ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and canceling all BRIC applications from Fiscal Years 2020-2023. If grant funds have not been distributed to states, tribes, territories, and local communities, funds will be immediately returned either to the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S. Treasury. … The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters. Under Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need. Approximately $882 million of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be returned to the U.S. Treasury or reapportioned by Congress in the next fiscal year. The 2021 law made $1 billion available for BRIC over five years, $133 million to date has been provided for about 450 applications. FEMA estimates more than $3.6 billion will remain in the Disaster Relief Fund to assist with disaster response and recovery for communities and survivors.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote in a memo Thursday the agency will not allocate the $750 million that was planned this year for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants. The BRIC program funds local projects that reduce damage from flooding, tornadoes and other weather-related events.

In a statement Friday morning, FEMA called BRIC “another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with climate change than helping Americans (affected) by natural disasters.”

In August of 2022, the cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen were awarded a $50 million BRIC grant to help fund the $94 million North Shore levee project. At the time, Willie Nunn, director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 10, said that when the levee was finished, the project would stop floodwaters, promote future investments, create affordable housing and jobs and foster economic development.

“It will also remove about $1.2 million of flood insurance premiums from the community,” Nunn said in 2022. “It will protect 3,100 properties and 994 businesses. Also, it’s important to say economic growth will maintain 842 jobs and create new ones.”

In total, the region had been awarded $84 million in BRIC grant money for levee projects.

“I spoke with Matthew Lebens from Washington State Emergency Management Division (Friday) and he confirmed our fears that the North Shore Level projects are in fact cancelled and will not be able to proceed,” said Hannah Cleverly, deputy director of emergency management for Grays Harbor County in an email. “The Westport VES project, because it was already awarded, will undergo a program review at the FEMA headquarters, and the project will not be allowed an extension to the Period of Performance, which ends September 2025. … These projects WERE NOT ‘waste, fraud, abuse or furthering ‘political agendas,’ as the memo states. These projects were designed to save lives and property in a disaster.”

“We have been told by our FEMA liaison, Hannah Cleverly, that it’s under review and that we will be reached out to (by FEMA), but I have not been reached out to yet and neither has the city administrator,” said Westport Mayor Ed Welter. “This would be the only vertical evacuation tower in the city of Westport. It is hugely important, truly designated for the citizens.”

In late February, the cities of Ocean Shores and Westport agreed to team up under the Grays Harbor County umbrella to combat their common erosion issues. The group submitted an application for a Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) grant to FEMA. The hope was that the CTP grant would lead to studying the problems, which would have then led to a BRIC grant. According to Raines, the CTP grant application is still in the review process.

The Daily World has reached out to the city administrators of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, Ruth Clemens and Brian Shay, respectively, for comment. This is an ongoing story. More to come.