Staff members of the North Carolina Department of Safety’s Emergency Management/Hazard Mitigation Branch will be on Ocracoke Island for three days starting Monday to assist Hyde County officials in preparing FEMA documents for the Florence and Dorian disasters.
The group will be here to assist the county in providing the documentation for FEMA to be able to evaluate and issue award decisions on damaged homes.
Their primary community engagement will be gathering FEMA’s required photos and remaining documents for over 200 Ocracoke homeowners who have applied for FEMA funding to elevate their homes and bring them back into code compliance.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the agents will not be knocking on doors, but will take front, back, left and right view exterior photos of the homes as required to meet FEMA’s funding regulations.
State officials will be in marked vehicles and NC Emergency Management-logoed shirts on.
This work completes the extensive work already submitted by Hyde County staff in the aftermath of Florence and Dorian.
FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, and Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program all include property elevations as an eligible project type. Local communities — not individual survivors — are eligible for mitigation grants. To qualify, homeowners must meet all eligibility criteria and then apply through their local community, which applies to the state of North Carolina.
For questions about this program, visit https://www.ncdps.gov/emergency-management/em-community/recovery-mitigation/hazard-mitigation.
