County Could be in a Pinch As Its Hazard Plan Expires

Fayette County’s hazard mitigation plan expired in December. It could take a year for the County to update and renew the plan. That could put Fayette County in a pinch if a hurricane or some other disaster strikes the area before a new plan is in place.

The news came out at a special meeting of the Fayette County Commissioners Court last Wednesday, April 6.

“Right now, we won’t have a hazard mitigation plan for many months, and if we get a hurricane, we’d get no funding,” said Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom.

The hazard mitigation plan contains lists of critical infrastructure such as bridges and low water crossings. The plan provides documentation for the County in case it needs to apply for a grant to repair or replace pieces of infrastructure lost in a natural disaster or other major emergency.

“If you have a hurricane and those water crossings flood or whatever happens, then you can go back and say, ‘See, we need bridges there and here’s the documentation to prove it,’” said Angela Hahn, grant specialist for Fayette County.

The lapse already cost the County grant funding for water well generators. The County had applied for a $493,000 grant to purchase generators for Fayette Water Supply after the State of Texas mandated backup power for public water utilities in response to Winter Storm Uri last year.

“The generator grant has to have an active plan to be awarded, and we don’t have one at this point,” Hahn said.

“If you want to get any kind of mitigation money, recoverytype funds for any disasters from her on out, you have to have a mitigation plan that’s updated every five years,” she added.

“We need to really get on the ball and get something going on that,” McBroom said.

“We can do it in-house, but it’s time consuming and expensive,” Hahn said.

Hahn said the County could apply for a grant from the Texas Department of Emergency Management. Those funds could be used to hire a consultant to develop the plan, Hahn said.

Responsibility for developing and maintaining the plan falls on the Fayette County Office of Emergency Management. Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau said his office has already completed a needs assessment for the plan.

“We looked into doing this in late 2019 and early 2020,” Moreau told Commissioners. “I actually wanted to do it myself in-house. That was before we knew about this thing called COVID, which was so time consuming.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to withdraw the grant application for the water well generators. They discussed using American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to purchase the generators. Hahn reported that the County has about $900,000 in ARP funds remaining from the first installment that came last year. She said the County is expecting to receive another $2.5 million installment next month.

After the meeting, the Record asked County Judge Joe Weber why the County allowed the hazard mitigation plan to expire.

“As County Judge, I’m responsible for making sure that got done, and it didn’t get done,” Weber said.

“There are some workarounds,” Moreau said after the meeting, “We could resubmit the old plan.”

Hahn said state and federal officials will have to approve any plan the County submits, which she said would take three to four months.