Disaster Grant Funded Projects

Hurricane Sandy Disaster Recovery Grants

Grant Total:$47,174,958
SHPOs Awarded:Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Virginia
THPOs Awarded:Narragansett Indian Tribe, Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Tribal Nation

In 2013 and 2014, the NPS awarded $47 million to 12 States and two Tribes in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions to assist in historic preservation recovery efforts from Hurricane Sandy in areas where FEMA issued major disaster declarations. The program is still active and final numbers will be posted as grants close.

Eligible activities include:

• Necessary compliance activities required by 54 USC 306108 (commonly known as Section 106) of the National Historic Preservation Act related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy

• Administration costs necessary to complete and administer the program

• Recovery and repair of historic properties; eligible properties include historic districts, buildings, sites, structures, and objects listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Eligible properties that receive funding must complete a National Register of Historic Places nomination as part of the project.

• Survey and inventory of historic resources in areas that have received a major disaster declaration pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 USC 5121 et seq.)

• All funded repair work must substantially mitigate the threat and include steps to mitigate future damage.

Award Amounts

Connecticut: $8,014,769
Delaware: $1,000,000
Maryland: $1,472,945
Massachusetts: $1,214,462
New Hampshire: $945,703
New Jersey: $13,144,042
New York: $13,634,696
Ohio: $408,000
Pennsylvania: $1,500,000
Rhode Island: $3,206,493
Virginia: $1,500,000
West Virginia: $346,000
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation: $73,216
Narragansett Indian Tribe: $714,632

Hurricanes Katrina & Rita

Grant Total:$43,000,000
SHPOs Awarded:Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi
Projects Total:858
Final Report: Katrina Recovery Program Final Report

• Congress passed Public Law 109-234, appropriating $43 million from the Historic Preservation Fund to the SHPOs in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi for relief from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

  • $40 million for the preservation, stabilization, rehabilitation, and repair of historic properties listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

  • $3 million for Federal Compliance Requirements.

• Congress passed Public Law 110-28, appropriating an additional $10 million from the Historic Preservation Fund to Louisiana for hurricane relief efforts.

In addition to being our nation’s most costly disaster, Hurricane Katrina produced one of the greatest cultural disasters in American history. Hurricane Katrina claimed thousands of irreplaceable historic resources while leaving countless more severely damaged and vulnerable. As a result, Congress passed Public Law 109-234, appropriating $43 million from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) to the SHPOs in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama for relief from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Of that award, $40 million was for the preservation, stabilization, and repair of historic properties listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The remaining $3 million was for Section 106 review assistance, which was most often used by states to hire staff to manage the program. Later, Congress passed Public Law 110-28, appropriating an additional $10 million from HPF to Louisiana for hurricane relief efforts.

Only hurricane-related damage was eligible to receive assistance through this program. This included rehabilitation limited to portions of property that retained sufficient integrity to remain listed in the National Register of Historic Places. All activities were required to adhere to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Acquisition and major reconstruction were not eligible. The National Park Service worked closely with the SHPOs to administer the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Grant Program.

The funding was focused on getting people back into their historic homes. SHPOs provided subgrants to a variety of recipients, including individuals, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, local governments, and state agencies. In all, 3,224 subgrant applications were received by the SHPOs. Funding allowed only 858 projects to be awarded.

Among the funded projects were a wide variety of building types, including small antebellum cottages, commonplace 20th century bungalows, as well as high-style architectural resources. Without this grant program, a significant portion of these properties would have been lost.

While Hurricane Katrina has often been referred as the worst natural disaster to have ever occurred in the United States, the unsettling reality is that disasters happen ever year in every region of the country and being better prepared and ready to meet these fire, flood, wind, and storm surge events is critical to the future survival and recovery of many of our irreplaceable historic resources.

Hurricane Katrina Recovery

The hurricane season of 2005 was a devastating event for the Gulf Coast; Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed lives, communities, families, and countless historic resources. In response to this loss of historic fabric and with the hope that many of the remaining resources could be saved the National Park Service received a total of $53 million in federal grant funding to aid in the historic preservation efforts in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

This funding supported the preservation, stabilization, rehabilitation, and repair of historic properties listed in or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Three million of the funding was for assistance with completing Federal compliance requirements.

Alabama

Total grant award: $2.45 million with $2.25 million for subgrants

Program Guidelines and Background:

• 38 projects received grant funding.
• Grants were awarded to a mix of homeowners, municipalities, and Alabama State run historic preservation projects.
• Subgrant awards ranged from as small as $1,139 to the maximum grant amount of $100,000.
• Alabama hosted two outreach workshops to help applicants.

Project Examples:

• Fort Morgan Casemate (NHL 1850s fort) masonry stabilization.
• Isle Dauphin roof repair of the 1956 beach club.
• Chunchula Schoolhouse window repair and leveling, a project that has since attracted additional outside grant funding.

Louisiana

Total grant award: $22.7 million with $21.4 million available for subgrants

Program Guidelines and Background:

• 567 projects received grant funding.
• Over 1,900 applications received, totaling $41,749,089 in requested funding.
• Subgrants to homeowners ranged from $5,000 to $45,000; with some grants to smaller commercial properties.
• All properties awarded grants are protected by preservation agreements. No easements were required but most project properties are located in regulated historic districts.

Project Examples:

• There are grant projects in every historic district in New Orleans and the 15 surrounding parishes, covering a wide variety of rehabilitation and preservation projects primarily of private homes.

Mississippi

Total grant award: $27.5 million with $26 million available for subgrants

Program Guidelines and Background:

• 257 projects received grant funding.
• 566 applications were received for a total of $55 million in requested funding.
• Grant assistance was largely for owner-occupied homes, but some private non-profit properties, public properties, and commercial properties received funding as well.
• Grants range in size from $20,000 to $1 million but most properties were capped at no more than $150,000.
• Mississippi hosted multiple events to promote the program and inform the public.
• All properties have easements that range from five years to perpetuity based on the grant amount awarded.

Project Examples:

• Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home, received grant funding for the restoration of all interior decorative plaster.
• The Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan designed Charnley Cottage and Guest House received funding for restoration.
• The Steiner home in Waveland received funding for stabilization and rehabilitation of the exterior of the residence.