Local Leaders Learn About Flood Mitigation Grants Offered By Golden Leaf Foundation

Learning from last year's devastating flooding to better prepare for the next time heavy rain falls. Haywood County hopes to get financial help for safety improvements to prevent flooding. Local officials learned about grants available to help make that happen.

The State of North Carolina provides nonprofit Golden Leaf Foundation with funding, which in turn provides grant money to local jurisdictions for flood mitigation projects.

“The dollars are available in competitive grants of up to $250,000 per project,” Golden Leaf Foundation president Scott Hamilton said.

He said floods like the one that hit Western North Carolina in mid-August 2021 provide vital data.

“Looking back at previous floods can inform what repair or replacement needs to be made to be able to handle future flooding and to prevent the causes from flooding,” Hamilton said. “Culverts may have collapsed over time, and municipalities or counties can apply for funding to repair those culverts.”

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Mountain Rep. Mark Pless organized an informational meeting in Maggie Valley for local leaders, emphasizing the grants are to mitigate flooding impacts.

“This will do nothing for what happened. This will just limit what happens the next time we have a big storm, and we will have more storms,” Pless said. “So now, hopefully, this grant money will take away some of the responsibility of local government money so that we can save the taxpayers in the end."

American Flood Coalition members attended the Wednesday meeting, as well, knowing flood dynamics are very different from the coastal Carolinas to the mountains, where advance warnings can be very short.

“Actively asking and working with the legislature and Congress to make sure that we have the resources in place to make sure our communities are as safe and livable as possible,” American Flood Coalition Carolinas director Tony McEwen said.

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Local leaders listened, knowing measures taken now can make a big difference later.

“Those engineered systems can actually save loss of life and property, so we're looking at any possible money,” Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead said.

“They will have to apply. They'll have to come in with a project, and they'll have to get the numbers of how much that project is going to cost,” Pless said.

Golden Leaf expects many applications and will be prioritizing them, but not on a first-come, first-served basis.