Mitigation Programs

Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation

CDBG – Mitigation funds, appropriated by Congress and allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, represent a unique and significant opportunity to carry out strategic and high-impact activities to mitigate disaster risks and reduce future losses, while simultaneously transforming state and local planning efforts. To see the MIT Federal Register notice, click here. The following OCD program(s) are funded by CDBG-MIT allocations:

Louisiana Watershed Initiative

In March and August 2016, Louisiana experienced two historic rain events that produced trillions of gallons of rainwater. The rising floodwaters reached more than 145,000 homes throughout the state, leaving behind an estimated $10 billion in damage and resulting in recovery efforts that will take years to complete.

These devastating events exposed key weaknesses in Louisiana’s approach to floodplain management and risk-reduction planning at all levels of government. In response, Gov. John Bel Edwards charged several state agencies with coordinating their efforts to develop a new approach to reducing flood risk throughout Louisiana, thus creating the Louisiana Watershed Initiative.

LWI’s work ranges from the development of hydraulic and hydrologic models to the development of watershed coalitions in coordination with parish, state and federal entities. The Initiative has made significant progress and many findings have emerged that are helping to inform the state’s shift from mitigating flood risk within jurisdictional boundaries to an approach that more directly takes into account the flow of water and its natural boundaries.

For more information, click on the Watershed links in the right-hand column menu.

National Disaster Resilience Competition

On June 14, 2014, President Obama announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition, in which states that experienced a presidentially declared major disaster in 2011, 2012 or 2013 could compete for nearly $1 billion in federal funding to help communities rebuild and increase their resilience.

Louisiana was one of the states eligible to compete for $820 million of $1 billion, which was available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery  funds drawn from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013.

On Sept. 17, 2014, HUD officially launched the competition, which promoted risk assessment and planning, and will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for future storms and other extreme events. All successful applicants needed to tie their proposals to the eligible disaster(s) from which they are recovering.