The elimination of a federal program means governments in Northeast Pennsylvania must search elsewhere to mitigate flood risks and protect residents.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency terminated the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program last week. The agency called it a “wasteful, politicized” grant program and canceled all applications from 2020-2023.
Scranton hoped to receive $2.5 million to help acquire 21 properties in West Scranton, after heavy rain in September 2023 caused significant damage.
“We were very close, we think, to approval for that process, which makes this even harder,” Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti said Wednesday. “But we're committed to making sure this works in some form for these property owners, because this is unfair to them financially. … They have new mortgages. They're renting properties. They need to financially recover from the disaster.”
In Luzerne County, the Flood Protection Authority planned to apply for BRIC funding to rehabilitate a levee in Duryea and create a new levee in Exeter. Both projects are still in the design phase.
The authority, which estimated the projects will cost about $16 million, may put the projects on hold, said Christopher Belleman, executive director.
“With that gone, we'll just have to see what arises in its place, if anything,” he said. “It's a strange, uncharted territory we're in now. … We have to kind of sit and wait and see what develops.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne) on Wednesday urged FEMA to reinstate the program.
“This program is a hand-up, not a hand-out, to at-risk communities who have suffered catastrophic weather events,” Bresnahan wrote in his letter to Cameron Hamilton, FEMA acting administrator. “This includes my district and Northeastern Pennsylvania. The September 9, 2023 floods caused nearly $25 million in damage and destroyed 459 residences.”
Scranton project
FEMA called the program “ineffective” and directed undistributed BRIC funds to be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S. Treasury.
“It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” according to a statement released Friday. “Under Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need.”
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act made $1 billion available for BRIC over five years. Before the elimination, $133 million had been provided for about 450 applications.
Scranton applied for $2.5 million in December 2023. The grant required the city to pay 25%, for a total project cost of $3.4 million. The average timeline for the approval process had been about 18 months, Cognetti said.
After acquiring the three vacant lots and then also acquiring and demolishing the 18 homes, the city planned to make the area a green space and perhaps a soccer field, she said.
In a letter sent to federal lawmakers this week, she called called the plan a vital strategy to “reduce public safety risks and avoid future disaster recovery costs.”
“We were hopeful and prepared to move forward. The abrupt cancellation of the BRIC program now threatens to erase years of planning, collaboration, and federal-state-local investment — all at a time when climate-related disasters are accelerating,” Cognetti wrote.
The proposed acquisitions are along Jackson Street, Leggett Street, Mary Street, and North Merrifield Avenue and represent some of the most at-risk properties in Scranton, according to Cognetti.
Many of those properties sat vacant on Wednesday, condemnation notices on their doors and a “keep out” sign on a window.
“Residents in these areas have faced repeated flooding, property damage and emotional distress,” she wrote in the letter. “The BRIC grant would have enabled us to provide voluntary buyouts, relocate residents to safer housing and restore natural stormwater buffers. Terminating this opportunity puts those families back at square one — with no pathway forward.”
Efforts to obtain comment from Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick were not immediately successful Wednesday.
