Virtual aftershocks continue to reverberate throughout the Grays Harbor region in the wake of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s cancellation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program.

In addition to the Aberdeen and Hoquiam levee projects, other numerous initiatives, in progress or planned, are negatively impacted by this Trump administration decision.

The city of Ocean Shores, which constructed a temporary cobble berm to mitigate the effects of coastal erosion, was planning to build a tsunami tower, similar to the very first structure of its kind, which was constructed in 2022 in Tokeland by the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe using their funds and a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

According to an article published by the Washington State Military Department, “The platform in Tokeland can hold more than 400 people — enough for the entire local population.”

With the loss of BRIC funding, the tsunami tower project planned for Ocean Shores is no more. However, all may not be lost for the 2,800-foot temporary cobble berm along the north shore of Oyhut Bay that was constructed in late January.

“It’s amazing, it’s an incredible structure, it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. It’s starting to collect driftwood, it’s starting to fill in with sand. It could even potentially work long term with basic maintenance,” Scott Andersen, Ocean Shores city administrator, told KOSW Radio in Ocean Shores. “The BRIC funding that was available for FEMA which was how we were going to build our tsunami tower and how we were going to make the berm permanent was cut and BRIC as a mechanism for grants was dismantled at least for now. Everything is on hold.”

Andersen said the city of Ocean Shores is exploring other avenues to obtain funding and has garnered support from several neighboring agencies and governing bodies.

“We’re trying a new approach, we put in a grant last week with Congresswoman Emily Randall’s office for a potential earmark for community coast resilience and safety concerns. We’re going to see if we can go down that road.” Andersen said. “We have a lot of support, Grays Harbor Emergency Management, Hannah (Cleverly) wrote letters of support, Commissioner(s) Vickie Raines and Georgia Miller. We’ve got some powerful allies at the county, and others that have stepped up, and at Washington EMD (Emergency Management Division) who’s stepped up as well. If you watch the video, the erosion that’s happened in the last 35 years is just incredible. If we can create a berm that stops that permanently that would be fantastic.”

Andersen added that the long-term solution would be to get the remnant jetty repaired (along with the north jetty) that would possibly lead to the accretion of land.

“So far that berm is doing exactly what we hoped it would do. It’s based on the same model that worked out for Westport,” Andersen said. “(The Washington Department of ) Ecology was willing to permit that because there’s no real damage to the environment.”

According to Andersen, the long-awaited north jetty rebuild will not be affected by the ending of the BRIC program.

“Those funds remain secured, that was not done through the BRIC process, the funding mechanism is different. From what I understand we’re still moving forward, that process will start,” Andersen said. “The first rocks are going to start being placed in March of next year. That’s when you’ll start seeing trucks rumbling into Ocean Shores along Ocean Shores Boulevard. Anything can happen, but right now, that money is still on the table, that process is still moving forward.”

In February, the cities of Westport and Ocean Shores joined forces under the Grays Harbor County umbrella to combat common erosion problems. An application for a $150,000 Cooperating Technical Partners grant to study the region’s shared erosion problems was submitted on Feb. 14. The status of that grant is unknown at this time. The hope was that study would lead to a BRIC grant to implement a solution.

Scott Boettcher, who was chosen to lead the efforts, said at the time, “There’s a real concern about losing Damon Point. The sense of immediacy is very, very prevalent. These are regional problems beyond just what Ocean Shores and Westport can handle.”

Conditions at Damon Point have become too dangerous and has since been closed by the city and the Department of Natural Resources.

Boettcher also said in February, “I would think the work on the North Beach and the coastal erosion issues is an opportunity to chart the next future for the coast given all the demographic changes that are afoot, the coastal changes.”

With the loss of the BRIC grant program, that opportunity is currently stuck in ever-shifting sands.