Flood Mitigation Assistance Fiscal Year 2021 Subapplication Status

FY21 Round 1 Selections

FMA Selected Subapplications

Highlights of the FY21 Round 1 FMA Subapplications

FY21 FMA Subapplication Status

FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant programs provide funding to protect life and property from future natural disasters. The Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program assists states, tribal, territorial and local governments reduce or eliminate claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Grant funding from Flood Mitigation Assistance continues to reduce or eliminate claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) with a focus on mitigating Severe Repetitive Loss and Repetitive Loss properties.  In addition, funded projects will reduce flood risk through mitigation of properties in communities disproportionately impacted by flooding.

On May 18, 2022, FEMA announced the selections of subapplications for the $1.16  billion available in Fiscal Year 2021 for Flood Mitigation Assistance and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant funding. In addition, 38 tribes have been selected for planning, project and management costs totaling $26.1 million total project costs.

The Flood Mitigation Assistance application period opened on Sept. 30, 2021, and closed on Jan. 28, 2022. Eligible applicants applied using the new grant management system, FEMA Grants Outcome (FEMA GO).

For the first time, FEMA is doing two rounds of review and selection for both Flood Mitigation Assistance and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities subapplications. Projects selected in the first round are prioritized for review before FEMA allocates funding.

FEMA made this decision to award funding to states, local jurisdictions, tribes and territories as quickly as possible. This way, selections are not on hold until all projects are reviewed.

During Round 1 for Flood Mitigation Assistance, FEMA selected seven subapplications for further review for individual property mitigation. These represented more than $19 million in federal share. Of the 102 properties included in those subapplications, 86 are Severe Repetitive Loss or Repetitive Loss properties at greatest risk of flood damage.

FEMA received 982 subapplications that requested an estimated $4.7 billion in federal funding across the two non-disaster Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities and Flood Mitigation Assistance.

This year, overall, FEMA received fewer subapplications than FY 2020; however, there is a greater total dollar amount in requests for federal funding.

In total, all 56 states and territories applied for funding. FEMA also received submissions from 62 tribes.

Flood Mitigation Assistance received 194 subapplications for FY 2021.

The total federal cost share requested increased by 34%—from $399 million in FY 2020 to $534 million in FY 2021.

For this grant cycle, $160 million is available. Flood Mitigation Assistance received requests for nearly $534 million in federal share. Total proposed project costs exceeded $649 million.

In total, 25 states and territories applied for Flood Mitigation Assistance grant funding. Three states submitted projects with $50 million or more in federal share.

The state of Louisiana submitted multiple subapplications requesting over $100 million in federal share, which was more than 60% of the funds available in this grant cycle.

Thirty-one states and territories did not submit subapplications. No tribes submitted subapplications.

Flood Mitigation Assistance received over 1,500 Individual Property Mitigation submissions. This was a nearly 50% increase from the 1,088 applications submitted in the previous year. In addition, the $324 million in federal share requested for these projects in FY 2021 is much higher than the $228 million requested in 2020.

This grant cycle, Flood Mitigation Assistance received more Individual Property Mitigation submissions from socially vulnerable communities. These areas were determined by the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index.

Uses of Flood Mitigation Assistance	Number of Subapplications Submitted	Amount of Funding Requested
Individual Property Mitigation Projects	126	$324 million
Community Flood Mitigation	21	$169 million
Project Scoping	18	$6.9 million
Technical Assistance/Flood Hazard Planning	5	$270,000
Management Costs	24	$33.4 million

Various types of projects are eligible for Flood Mitigation Assistance grants. The lists below reflect the top five project types by federal cost share requested and number of subapplications (not including management costs).

1. Elevation = $224.7 million
2. Flood Control = $167.1 million
3. Acquisitions = $86.5 million
4. Mitigation Reconstruction = $8.1 million
5. Engineering, Environmental, Feasibility, and/or Benefit-Cost Analysis = $6.5 million

1. Elevation = 86 subapplications
2. Acquisitions = 30 subapplications
3. Flood Control = 20 subapplications
4. Engineering, Environmental, Feasibility, and/or Benefit-Cost Analysis = 16 subapplications
5. Mitigation Reconstruction = 7 subapplications

For the first round of FY 2021 Flood Mitigation Assistance selections, FEMA selected for further review 22 subapplications totaling $25.5 million across 19 different communities in five states. Some examples of subapplications selected for further review include:

• In Louisiana, FEMA selected for further review five subapplications to elevate 73 individual buildings in Ascension, New Iberia, Rapides and St. Tammany parishes.
• In New Jersey, FEMA selected for further review a subapplication for technical assistance in Atlantic County to be used for application development, assessment of flood hazard and the facilitation of flood mitigation projects.
• In New York, FEMA selected for further review three subapplications for project scoping, including one for a housing complex in the Bronx that has high flood risk due to sea-level rise and high-intensity rainfall that is worsening due to climate change.  
• In Texas, FEMA selected for further review a subapplication to elevate 27 individual buildings in Fort Bend, Harris, and Montgomery Counties.

The below table lists the submitted planning and project subapplications and the status of each alphabetically by applicant.

View further explanation of the status descriptions.