Raise, Rebuild, Repair or Sell Out: Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Help Options

If your North Carolina home was affected by Hurricane Helene and PTC8 (Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight, the storm we got before Helene), the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is accepting applications.*

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is managed by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management.

This grant funding is available after a presidentially declared disaster.

In this program, homeowners and businesses cannot apply for a grant. However, a local community may apply for funding on their behalf.

FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)

Start the process by filling out the Hazard Mitigation Grants Information Request.

Hazard Mitigation Grants Information Request

This program is only for homeowners, but there is no income requirement. You aren’t obligated to anything. If you are approved, you don’t have to accept the help if you don’t want to.

What will the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program pay for?

There are different types of projects; Elevation, Reinforcement, Reconstruction, or Acquisition.

Structure Elevation

Raising an existing structure to meet FEMA or local ordinance requirements, 2-feet above the 100-year flood elevation.

The house is jacked up. The existing foundation is removed and a new foundation is built under the house. The house can be on a higher foundation, stilts or backfilled to raise the land around and under the house.

You can leave everything in the house. FEMA provides a camper to live in while the work is being done.

Structural Reinforcement

Repairs that bring a home up to current code to mitigate damage from wind and other hazards. It may include bracing, door and window repairs, foundation bolting and other things.

Hazard Mitigation Reconstruction

If your home is too badly damaged or for other reasons cannot be elevated, a new home is built that meets current building codes on the same land.

Everything salvageable in the home is put into storage, you live somewhere else while they build.

Acquisition

Acquisition is what it sounds like. The program buys your home from you at its value before the storms. You take the money and go wherever you want. The home is demolished and the land is not allowed to be built on again.

You don’t have to accept the buyout. You can withdraw your application at any time.

The program is federally and state funded. FEMA pays 75%, the state pays 25%. If you are approved, you don’t have to pay anything at all.

Structure Elevation Examples

This house is being lifted. The old foundation will be removed and a new higher foundation built below it.

Sometimes the house stays in place. An elevated floor is built inside. Sometimes the a new upper story can be added above the house.

Even a large house can be raised. The utilities are disconnected and some parts of the house are secured.

Steel beams are placed under the floor joists. The house is literally jacked up with really strong synchronized jacks.

Temporary supports, called cribs, are placed under the house to support it while a new foundation is constructed.

When the new foundation is finished, the house is attached to the new foundation, the home is inspected and the utilities are reconnected.

Sometimes additional soil is added to raise the ground around the house.

Often fill is added during the initial construction to raise a house above the potential for flood. That is how our house was built.

Other Help Available

This program doesn’t help if you are renting your home. If you don’t qualify for this program, there is still a lot of help available. Contact FEMA.

You can find more information about state and local disaster recovery resources, damage assessment, clean-up services, recovery programs, and other public and individual assistance programs on the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website.

Disaster Recovery
North Carolina Department of Public Safety

*Other states have programs, too.

Featured image by Thomas W. Sulcer