Sonoma County awarded FEMA funds to mitigate natural disaster hazards
Sonoma County has been awarded almost $600,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for projects to mitigate seismic and wildfire hazards.
Bay City News Service
SANTA ROSA — Sonoma County has been awarded almost $600,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for projects to mitigate seismic and wildfire hazards.
The funds are the result of an “extensive” application and review process following the Sonoma Complex fires in October 2017.
“After the 2017 fires, we immediately started identifying available grants to help our community recover,” Board of Supervisors Chairman David Rabbitt said in a statement. “The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds will increase public safety in Sonoma County.”
The federal awards come in three parts, all administered by the California Office of Emergency Services, and require a local match from the county of $196,000.
A $250,000 award will be used to update the Sonoma County Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
“Planning efforts will involve other jurisdictions and improve analysis of local wildfire, landslide, flood, geologic, and climate change-related hazard risks,” the county said in a release. “Creating a
multi-jurisdiction plan will enable a comprehensive approach to risk reduction, and avoid duplication of efforts.”
A $150,000 award will fund updates to the Sonoma County Community Wildfire Protection Plan with a “focus on hardening structures and creating defensible space to reduce risk of fire damage in identified vulnerable wildfire locations throughout the County.
A $181,000 award will fund the purchase and installation of a generator at the county’s Transportation and Public Works yard in Santa Rosa Road Yard to reduce interruption to critical services.
The FEMA program awarded earlier grants of more than $2 million each in 2018 and early 2019 to the Sonoma County Water Agency.