The Basics: FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Program
Mitigation Funding Opportunity
Road closures caused by flooding in Bladen County, NC, after Hurricane Florence. Photo credit: FEMA, Liz Roll
Each year, FEMA allocates funding to its Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program for local and state governments to apply towards reducing or eliminating the risk of repetitive flood damage to properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Flood mitigation activities, like restricting development in floodplain areas, stormwater management improvements, and updating building codes, can significantly reduce or eliminate the impacts of flooding entirely.
US states, territories, and tribal governments are eligible to apply directly to FEMA, while local governments can submit subapplications to their state. Only communities participating in the NFIP are eligible to apply for FMA funding.
The amount of available funding for the program varies each year, as well as the program guidelines, priorities, and eligible activities. The FY 2018 program offers a total $70 million for community flood mitigation proposals, and an estimated $90 million for other FMA program priorities. FY 2018 program applicants and subapplicants can submit community flood mitigation proposals for Advance Assistance to apply towards developing mitigation strategies and obtaining data to design and prioritize community flood mitigation projects; or directly for Community Flood Mitigation Projects that use proven techniques to reduce the impacts of flooding on NFIP-insured properties. Subapplications that incorporate the FY 2018 flood mitigation project priorities will be ranked higher. Priorities include:
- Private Partnership Cost Share
- Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) rating
- Community Rating System (CRS) Participation
- Cooperating Technical Partners Program (CTP) Participation
- International Building Codes (IBC) Adopted
FEMA will award the remaining $90 million competitively using the FY 2018 other program priorities as evaluation criteria. These include technical assistance, flood mitigation planning, and flood mitigation projects on severe repetitive loss (SRL) or repetitive loss (RL) properties.
States must submit their FY 2018 FMA applications to FEMA by January 19, 2019. Local governments should check with their state emergency management or floodplain office to find their individual subapplication deadline and to learn more about their state’s application submittal and review process.
See FEMA’s FY 2022 FMA Program fact sheet to learn more, and visit FEMA’s website to learn more about the application process.
FEMA also provides grants for flood mitigation planning and activities through it’s Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program on the same timeline as the PDM program. Learn more about the PDM Program here.