Types of Grants
Shovel-ready Infrastructure Projects Under BRIC
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program aims to categorically shift the federal focus away from reactive disaster spending and toward research-supported, proactive investment in community resilience.
C&CB activities are only directly tied to infrastructure, such as building code adoption and enforcement.
This program is tied to reducing or eliminating the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings and structures insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC)
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program, is funded by FEMA and administered through a partnership with the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management (NCEM). NCEM has the authority and responsibility for developing and maintaining a State Standard Hazard Mitigation Plan, reviewing the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program sub-applications, recommending technically feasible and cost-effective sub-applications to FEMA and providing pass-thru funding for FEMA-approved and awarded project grants to eligible sub-applicants.
C&CB activities directly tied to infrastructure resilience, such as hazard resistant building code adoption or enforcement, related technical training, and project scoping for specific infrastructure projects.
Eligible Sub-applicants are:
- State Agencies
- Local Governments/Communities*
*may include any state-recognized Indian tribe or authorized tribal organization, or Alaska Native village or organization that is not federally recognized per 25 U.S.C. 479a et seq.
Application Information
As appropriated by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2019 (Pub. L. No. 116-6); Section 203(i) of the Stafford Act, as amended (Pub. L. No. 93-288) (42 U.S.C. § 5133) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. No. 117-58) (2021)., the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program provides resources to assist states, tribal governments, territories and local communities in their efforts to implement a sustained pre-disaster natural hazard mitigation program, as authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended (Pub. L. No. 93-288) (42 U.S.C. § 5133) as implemented by Hazard Mitigation Assistance: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (FP:104-008-05).
NCDPS staff will verify eligibility. Sub-applicants must be named in a FEMA-approved local mitigation plan by the application deadline in order to apply for mitigation projects in accordance with Title 44 CFR Part 201. Most North Carolina communities are in compliance with this already. Our planning team will work with you on any needed amendments to ensure proper action/plan alignment.
- BRIC projects must be cost-effective, technically feasible, effective, and consistent with the goals of applicable FEMA-approved State and local multi-hazard mitigation plans.
- Eligible subapplications are awarded on a nationally competitive basis except for the C&CB proposals which are ranked and funded by the $2M State allocation.
- Federal funding is available for up to 75 percent of the eligible activity cost. NCEM recommends a 70/30 split to capture the available overmatch points. (70% fed, 30% non-fed)
The BCA is the most critical piece of the application.
It is the State’s recommendation that sub-applicants retain a firm or individual who is experienced with infrastructure BCA’s as it relates to HMA guidance and the BCA Toolkit v.6.0. During the grant development process, our team will share a link to successful BCA’s from the first three years of the program and notes from FEMA pointing out the critical mistakes of the failing BCA’s.
Sub-applicants must use a FEMA-credible 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. The BCA must be attached to the sub-applicant's application. The FEMA-approved BCA Toolkit, which includes the Flood Modules, may be downloaded at no cost at fema.gov/benefit-cost-analysis. The BCA Helpline may be contacted by telephone at (866) 222-3580 or via e-mail at bchelpline@dhs.gov.
- Read the NCEM Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)
- Register for an account or login at the NCEM Salesforce Portal.
- Upload LOI form in Salesforce.
Resources for BRIC
FEMA has developed resources to assist sub-applicants with project and planning sub-applications. Tools for the BRIC program can be found in the links below:
Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) 2024 Funding
NCEM strongly encourages towns/counties with repetitive flood loss properties to develop flood mitigation projects for the $800 million available under the NCEM FMA NOFO. This program is tied to reducing or eliminating the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings and structures insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Unlike BRIC, this program can include individual property elevations and acquisitions as long as they are NFIP-insured at the time of the NOFO release and at the time of the award announcement.
Competitive funding is available for three different types of proposals:
- Capability and Capacity Building Activities $60 million
- Localized Flood Risk Reduction Projects $340 million
- Individual Flood Mitigation Projects $400 million
Information obtained by submitting the required Request for NFIP Policy Holder PII form will help you to determine if your project will compete better in BRIC or FMA. Data is usually provided within 15 days. After obtaining your current NFIP data and determining approximately how much of your project’s benefitting area includes NFIP-insured properties (and particularly repetitive loss and severe repetitive loss properties), please schedule a meeting with our development team to discuss a strategy.
Additional grant development assistance for individual flood mitigation projects is available in the coastal region through a FEMA-funded grant which placed a Regional Project Development Specialist in each of the four coastal COG’s. Feel free to reach out to your representative COG at:
Albemarle Commission – Nicole Bowman-Layton nlayton@accog.org
MidEast Commission – Cameron Braddy cbraddy@mideastcom.org
Eastern Carolina Council - Sara Deskar sdeskar@eccog.org
Cape Fear Council of Government – Chip Bartlett cbartlett@capefearcog.org
Resources for FMA
Contact
Kaine Riggan
Grant Development Specialist
BRIC/FMA Lead
North Carolina Department of Public Safety; Division of Emergency Management, Hazard Mitigation
Office: 919-873-5854
Kaine.Riggan@ncdps.gov
Mailing Address: 4238 Mail Service Center, Raleigh NC 27699-4238
Physical Address: 200 Park Offices Drive, Suite 100, Durham, NC 27713