Disaster Recovery Workshop For States

From Plan to Implementation: Lessons Learned

The Office of Rural Community Affairs was created in 2001

by the Texas Legislature to manage the non-entitlement

CDBG awards in support of community planning, health

care, housing, infrastructure improvements such as water,

sewer, road and drainage, and disaster recovery.

Office of Rural Community Affairs

August 29: Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph.

September 24: Hurricane Rita made landfall in Texas as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph.

2005 Hurricane Season

Courtesy of NASA

While Hurricane Katrina did not make landfall in Texas, the indirect impact led to a disaster declaration to provide emergency funding to assist Katrina evacuees. Over 400,000 evacuees poured into Texas. While assistance was ongoing, Hurricane Rita struck Texas.

Katrina and Rita Impact

Hurricane Rita resulted in all 254 Texas county declarations for emergency protective measures, 37 public assistance declarations, and 17 individual assistance declarations.

Katrina and Rita Recovery Needs

Public Safety .9% $18,700,000Transportation 2.7% $54,400,000Navigation and Waterway Repair 2.9% $59,000,000Community Redevelopment 3.5% $71,100,100Workforce Services 5.7% $115,000,000Social Services Assistance 6.2% $125,100,000Uncompensated Health Services 6.3% $126,600,000Agriculture, Forestry, & Rural Assist. 8.4% $170,000,000Housing Assistance 18.2% $367,000,000Educational Services 20.4% $412,600,000Critical Infrastructure 24.7% $498,300,000

Total 100.00% $2,017,800,100

Requested Funding Percent Amount

The Governor estimates Katrina and Rita losses total more than $2 billion dollars.

Source: Texas Rebounds

Assistance to Texas

February 2006: Round 1

Under HR 2863, Texas receives $74.5 million in supplemental CDBG disaster relief funds to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. ORCA administers $30.5 million for infrastructure projects, while TDHCA administers $41.3 million for housing reconstruction and rehabilitation, with no less than 55% to be spent on unmet housing needs.

October 2006: Round 2

Under Chapter 9 of Title II of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, Texas receives $428 million of which ORCA will administer $44.1 million.

The Office of the Governor, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and the Office of Rural Community Affairs collaborated to design a comprehensive recovery strategy to address both short term and long term recovery needs. The result of this collaboration was :

Round 1• State of Texas Plan for CDBG Disaster Recovery

Grantees under the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006

Action Plan

Round 2• 2006 State of Texas Action Plan to use CDBG Funding.

Round 1

Action Plan:Under the State Action Plan, four Councils of Governments served as applicants for 29 counties eligible for disaster recovery funding. The four COGs are:

East Texas COG

Deep East Texas COG

Southeast Texas Regional Planning

Commission

Houston-Galveston Area Council

The COGs reviewed applications and made these recommendations to ORCA for the funding of 97 separate awards to cities, counties, and Indian tribes within the 29 eligible counties.

Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita

Local, State, and Federal agencies assess damage and request assistance.

Public Law 109-148:

TDHCA

Program Design Overview

Chapter 9 of Title II:

ORCA TDHCA ORCAHousing Non-Housing Housing Critical Infrastructure

$74,523,000 $428,671,849

COG Applications and Recommendations

Local Jurisdiction Awards

Set-aside Awards$19.8 million

Competitive Awards$22.2 million

COGs served as applicants for recovery funding and recommended awards.

Round 1 Overview

Local Jurisdictions

Council of Governments

• The COGs could better prioritize local needs within the region.

• The COGs staff had experience both working with CDBG programs, and working with community leadership and staff.

• Limited funds required prioritization at the local level.

• Having only four applicants helped fast track the application process

Local jurisdictions applied through their respective COG.

Each COG worked under a very short timeline to:

• Define unmet needs of communities in disaster affected areas

• Meet with their respective member jurisdictions and acquire public input to gain stakeholder consensus.

• Establish a method of distribution based on FEMA damage assessments and distress factors such as population changes, unemployment, and per capita income.

Round 1 Action Plan

Round 1:

Council of Government Housing Non-Housing Total

Deep East Texas COG $6,745,034 $12,278,209 $19,023,244

East Texas COG $-0- $2,099,997 $2,099,997

Houston-Galveston COG $7015076 $3691341 $10,706,417

South East Texas Regional $26,498,536 $12,468,656 $38,967,192 Planning Commission

Total $38,938,268 $31,858,583 $70,796,850

Under HR 2863, Texas received $74.5 million in supplemental CDBG disaster relief funds to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

Funding was allocated as follows:

Deep East Texas COGMethod of Distribution for Non-Housing Funds

The DETCOG developed a method of distribution that factored in Texas Department of Insurance and FEMA data, population, poverty rates, unemployment rates, and previously received disaster recovery funds. Eligible activities are categorized into two priorities:

Reimbursement of costs to cities and counties for Hurricane Rita Disaster Recovery, including FEMA matching funds, NCRS agreements, and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding.

Reimbursement of costs for damaged public facilities, water and waste water facilities, hospitals and medical facilities, and public shelters, and to secure against power outages.

1st Priority 2nd Priority

Houston-Galveston Area Council Method of Distribution for Non-Housing Funds:

The HGAC developed a method of distribution based on a competitive pool of applicants. Interested applicants applied for projects and applications were reviewed by COG staff.

HGAC staff prepared a prioritized list of projects to submit to ORCA for funding consideration and recommendation. Eligible activities included local match for FEMA hazard mitigation grant program projects and critical infrastructure projects.

A minimum of one project per affected county was eligible to receive an award up to $350,000. Projects were scored on a competitive basis.

Eligible activities included: local match for FEMA HMGP projects and critical infrastructure projects.

Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission:Method of Distribution for Non-Housing Funds:

The SETRPC developed a method of distribution set by the Hurricane Rita Non-Housing Advisory Committee. No scoring of applications was involved and each entity submitted an application for reimbursement for uncompensated losses, and other storm related projects.

Eligible activities included FEMA public assistance, FEMA HMGP program, NRCS-USDA flood and drainage projects, and other CDBG eligible activities.

Funding recommendations were forwarded to ORCA.

East Texas Council of GovernmentMethod of Distribution for Non-Housing Funds

The ETCOG mailed packets of information to each city within the six eligible county areas. Nine cities responded with requests totaling $4 million dollars, though only $2 million in funding was available.

The ETCOG staff evaluated applications based on the number of low to moderate income individuals in each city, survey results, and regional priorities such as community shelters, FEMA mitigation project reimbursement and equipment.

Based on municipal input, a method of distribution was developed by staff in order to more equitably allocate recovery funds. Rather than a competitive method, a method in which each project could received partial funding was chosen. All cities agreed that the partial funding methodology would be the most equitable process.

Eligible activities included Community shelters, FEMA HMGP match and equipment.

Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs

First Supplemental Update as of February 25, 2008

INFRASTRUCTURE

Status of Infrastructure Funds as of February 25, 2008

  Current Budget Amount Drawn To Date Projects

ETCOG 2,049,997.00* 105,424.33 8

DETCOG 12,278,209.00* 3,870,332.70 49

SETRPC 12,468,656.00* 4,141,401.78 24

H-GAC 3,773,712.00* 311,376.81 16

Totals 30,570,574.00 8,428,535.62 97

*Includes Council of Governments planning and project delivery activities

Round 1 Progress Report

Will be updated

8 ORCA grants with CDBG funds awarded to be used as matching funds for 13 projects being led by the USDA through the natural resource conservation service.

Round I Challenges

Problems existed because some projects were not completed within grant deadlines, as well as budgeting conflicts due to incorrect classification of the projects within the grant activities.

NRCS was responsive to reprioritizing projects to accommodate CDBG project completion deadlines.

In addition, NRCS completed the projects with minimal community or ORCA administration effort. NRCS projects were required to fully comply with CDBG regulations such as NEPA, Davis-Bacon, and others

Natural Resource Conservation Service

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) provides grants to States and local governments to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures after a major disaster declaration. 

Round 1 Challenges

There were 10 grants with CDBG funds awarded to be used as

“matching funds” for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Projects.

These projects included 6 substantial drainage improvement projects

and 4 shelter construction/renovation projects.

First was 75%-25%, then 90%-10%, and then 100%. These

adjustments, while beneficial, caused additional administrative work.

FEMA Hazard Mitigation Projects

Round 2:

Activity Funding % Plan Funding

Homeowner Assistance $210,371,273 49.08%

Sabine Pass Restoration $12,000,000 2.80%

Rental Housing Stock Restoration $82,866,984 19.33%

Public Service and Comm. Devel. $60,000,000 14.00%

Critical Infrastructure Restoration$42,000,000 9.80%

Total $428,671,849 100%

State Administration Funds $21,433,592 5.00%

Under Chapter 9 of Title II of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations

Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, Texas

receives $428 million in recovery funding.

Critical Infrastructure Restoration Program :

$42,000,000 was provided solely for infrastructure projects where

there was outstanding damage and no other funding source was available.

Funding was set aside for:

Eligible Projects

Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital: $6,000,000

Funding used for the reconstruction of the hospital facilities and the replacement of damaged equipment

Bridge City: $3,800,000

Funding used for the repair of water and sewer infrastructure and debris removal.

Hardin County: $10,000,000

Funding used for debris removal in drainage areas.

Environmental Problems

404 Permitting

According to information obtained from the Corps of Engineers, these permits will take a minimum of 120-180 days to be issued. ORCA continues to work closely with each of the Round 2 communities in order to expedite the application process for these permits.

Generators

The environmental process was delayed because of discussions with HUD as to whether generators were permanent fixtures or movable appurtenances. This question delayed a determination of the level of environmental review required.

Davis Bacon did not impact many of the disaster activities because most

of the projects only restored the functionality of damaged infrastructure,

or debris management activities.

Davis Bacon

Many localities chose to use force account labor to complete projects.

Where rural Texas comes first.

Thank you for your time. Questions and Comments?