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Mitigation - Notice of Funding Availability

Notice of Funding Availability
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Mitigation - Repetitive Flood Claims Program

2011 Repetitive Flood Claims Program
Application Cycle is Now Open!
Deadline for Submission of Applications to the
State of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management is October 8, 2010, 4:00 PM EST

The Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM), which serves as the State Coordinating Agency for the National Flood Insurance, Flood Mitigation Assistance, Repetitive Flood Claims and Severe Repetitive Loss programs, is pleased to announce the opening of the application cycle under the Fiscal Year, 2011 Unified Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program. The State of Florida is being allocated project funds under the Unified Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Eligible applicants, local and Native American Tribal governments, must submit sub-applications to DEM by, 4:00pm on October 8, 2010 using FEMA's Electronic Grants Management System (E-Grants). Approved subapplications which are fully eligible, technically feasible and cost-beneficial will be submitted to FEMA for review.

The Flood Mitigation Assistance Program and the Severe Repetitive Loss Program compliments the Repetitive Flood Claims Program and utilizes the same e-Grant application. For information on other mitigation grant programs please see the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program page at (http://www.floridadisaster.org/Mitigation/FMAP/index.htm), or the Severe Repetitive Loss Program page at (http://www.floridadisaster.org/Mitigation/SRLP/index.htm).

Authorization and Purpose of Funding

The Repetitive Flood Claims Program is authorized under Section 1323 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 United States Code 4030), as amended by the Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-264). The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number for the RFCP is 97.092. This program, along with the Flood Mitigation Assistance and the Severe Repetitive Loss programs, address the acute need to reduce claims from the National Flood Insurance Fund by reducing or eliminating the long-term risk of flood damage to structures.

Priority for grant assistance will be those structures on the Severe Repetitive loss list which are currently insured under the National Flood Insurance Program. Further prioritization will be to those individual projects that create the greatest savings to the National Flood Insurance Fund, based on cost-effectiveness as demonstrated through a Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) using the FEMA approved BCA Flood Modules. Copies of the BCA Toolkit, including the Flood Modules, may be downloaded at no cost. The BCA Helpline may be contacted by telephone (866.222.3580-toll free) or via e-mail bchelpline@dhs.gov.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management's Role in the RFC Program

Although the Repetitive Flood Claims Program is federally funded, the program is administered through a partnership with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM), local and Native American Tribal governments and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Division of Emergency Management (DEM) has the authority and responsibility for developing and maintaining a State Mitigation Plan, assisting local and Native American Tribal governments in developing and maintaining Flood Mitigation Plans, reviewing Repetitive Flood Claims Program sub-applications, recommending cost effective sub-applications to FEMA and providing pass-through grant funds to awarded Repetitive Flood Claims Program projects from eligible sub-applicants. The Division of Emergency Management (DEM) is also responsible for ensuring that projects funded by the Repetitive Flood Claims Program are completed and that all performance and financial reporting requirements are met.

The Hazard Mitigation Assistance Unified Guidance, which may be amended by the State of Florida, governs how projects are submitted and selected for funding. The success in reducing future flood insurance claims depends upon the ability of our local and Native American Tribal governments to develop, maintain, and implement long-term flood mitigation projects. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM) will provide pass-through funds for approved projects that are the most cost-effective projects in reducing or eliminating future National Flood Insurance Fund claims.

Eligible Sub-Applicants

Eligible sub-applicants are:

1. Local governments,
2. Native American Tribal governments,
3. State-level agencies;
4. Applicants must participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. Communities that are suspended or withdrawn from the National Flood Insurance Program are not eligible to receive Repetitive Flood Claims grant funds.
5. Communities that have a current FEMA-approved and locally adopted Local Mitigation Strategy Plan.

Owners of structures, residential or non-residential, that have been previously flooded and desire to have their structure acquired should consult with their local or Native American Tribal government about submitting a sub-application on their behalf for Repetitive Flood Claims grant funds. Sub-applications must be submitted by an eligible applicant and they cannot be accepted directly from individuals, families or businesses.

Eligible Projects under the Repetitive Flood Claims Program

Eligible Project Activities:
Grants are available to local and Native American Tribal governments to implement measures to reduce the risk of flood damage to National Flood Insurance Program insured structures.

The State of Florida will use project funds to implement cost-effective measures that flood retrofit NFIP insured structures or substantially damaged structures. Examples of eligible flood retrofit activities are:

1. Acquisition and Demolition;
2. Acquisition and Relocation;
3. Elevation and Retrofit (Standard in Place Elevation);
4. Dry Flood-proofing of Non-Residential Structures;
5. Beach nourishment;
6. Minor Localized Flood Reduction Projects
7. Dry Flood-proofing of Historical Structures.

The activities above, although eligible, must also meet the following minimum criteria in order to be considered for funding:

• Be cost-effective
  A project must be cost-effective and substantially reduce the risk of future damage, hardship, loss or suffering resulting from a major disaster. This requirement is satisfied by performing an analysis to determine whether the benefits to be gained are at least equal to, or greater than the cost of the project.
  
  
• Be technically feasible
  The project must use flood resistant design and construction methods and flood resistant materials that are accepted by the design and construction industry, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Also a clear description of the proposed methods should be provided in the E-grant application’s scope of work.  
  
  
• Located in or benefits an NFIP-compliant community
  An eligible project must be located physically in a participating NFIP community that is not on probation, suspended or withdrawn from the NFIP, and the project must benefit such a community directly by reducing future flood damages.
  
  
• Conform with the State's Administrative Plan
  Each applicant must have an approved Flood Mitigation Plan, or a Community Rating System Floodplain Management Plan, or a Local Mitigation Strategy. Conformance with these plans ensures that the proposed measure is in keeping with statewide mitigation strategies. In some cases, the proposed project may be identified within the existing plan.
  
  
• Comply with environmental laws, regulations and executive orders
  Comply with Executive Order 11988 (Title 44, CFR , Part 9 - Floodplain Management and Protection of Wetlands), Environmental Considerations and the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA] (Title 44, CFR , Part 10).
  
  
• Be in conformance with the minimum floodplain management regulations of the National Flood Insurance Program (Title 44, CFR , Sections 59 and 60.3) and the local government's Community Rating System Program, if applicable.  

Application Process

Fully eligible and cost beneficial sub-applications will be submitted to FEMA Region IV. All applications must be submitted using the Egrants system. Local and Native American Tribal governments will perform a Benefit-Cost analysis as a part of the application process and attach this analysis to each sub-application.

E-grants Access: Training and Registration

E-Grants Training for the Sub-Applicant

An interactive computer based course is designed to provide local and Native American Tribal governments with basic knowledge about using the web-based Mitigation Electronic Grants (E-Grants) System. E-Grants streamlines the application process by providing governmental units with the ability to apply for and manage sub-grant applications over the Internet. This course is designed to allow the individual to take it in its entirety or to focus on specific aspects of the E-Grants System. The course examines registering for access to the E-Grants System; creating, completing and submitting sub-grant applications to the Florida Division of Emergency Management for forwarding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and managing approved sub-applications. The course may be accessed at the following link  http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS30.asp.

E-grants Registration for Sub-Applicants

Register a representative(s) to create and edit project sub-applications; and

Register a representative(s) to sign and submit the project sub-application. This representative may be the chief elected official or chief administrative official of the local or Native American Tribal government, or his/her designee. Documentation must be sent to the Florida Division of Emergency Management identifying this individual.

The Sub-grant Applicant Quick Reference Guide is available at http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=3267.

After reviewing the Application Process, click here to register for the E-Grants System: https://portal.fema.gov

1. Click on "New User ?" link to begin the registration process.
2. Follow screen instructions after clicking on New User and Submit. These require you to type the funny looking characters appearing on the screen.
3. Personal Information is entered on the next several screens; Special note: create a user name that is at least 7 characters and not more than 14 characters in length without any spaces, and all in lower case. Click on Submit when requested.
4. A new window will appear with the message Click here to request new privileges
5. Click on Mitigation egrants. The next screen will ask for "Access ID". Enter S12 (capital S) and submit.
6. The next screen confirms that registration is successful and you will see a message "Your request is being processed". This means that your request has been placed in the Egrant system approval queue. You will be notified via email once the DEM-FMAP staff has taken action on your request.
7. The applicant sends an email to DEM in care of shemeeka.hopkins@EM.MyFlorida.com with the names and access rights (view/print, create/edit and sign/submit) of all users to be registered from the local government.

Benefit-Cost Analysis

The traditional FEMA-approved software-based BCA Flood Modules to determine the cost effectiveness of a project must be used. Sub-applicants must use a FEMA approved methodology to perform a BCA. Only project sub-applications that demonstrate cost-effectiveness through a benefit cost ratio of 1.0 or greater will be considered for FMAP funding. The BCA must be attached to the sub-applicant’s application in PDF and Excel formats. The FEMA approved BCA Toolkit, which includes the Flood Modules, may be downloaded at no cost. The BCA Helpline may be contacted by telephone (866.222.3580) or via e-mail ( bchelpline@dhs.gov ).

Guidance

FEMA has developed resources to assist subapplicants with project and planning subapplications. The resources can be found on the HMA Application Development and Process web page at http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/hma/applications.shtm.

Publications and tools used in the Repetitive Flood Claims Program (RFC) are provided below: http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=4225

Mitigation - Benefit Cost Analysis Toolkit

Contact

All documents should be submitted to the Florida Division of Emergency Management at the following address:

State of Florida
Division of Emergency Management
 Repetitive Flood Claims Program
2555 Shumard Oak Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2100

Kirkland Spraggins
Kirk.spraggins@em.myflorida.com
850-413-9951

Updated:
June 23, 2010 14:10