The City of New York has allocated more than $30M for flood hazard mitigation programming, inclusive of both planning (such as conducting Local Flood Analyses in population centers), and implementation, (such as voluntary flood buyout/relocations, elevations, floodplain reclamations, for at-risk critical facilities, businesses, and residences). Communities that have participated in the 2017 Ulster County Multijurisdictional All-Hazard Mitigation Plan process are eligible to receive this FEMA funding.įor the communities located in the New York City water supply watershed, additional flood hazard mitigation funding is available. These include not only the post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, but the Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities (BRIC), and Flood Mitigation Assistance programs as well. Staff have also been trained in and prepared to assist communities interested in applying for FEMA’s suite of Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs. Staff worked alongside the communities involved in the NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program to identify, propose, and now implement mitigation projects in their communities. Additionally, the County is taking steps to integrate resiliency work, associated with the changing climate into not only flood hazard mitigation efforts, but throughout all of the County's projects and plans going forward. Staff continue to work hand-in-hand with communities to include flood hazard mitigation projects in the 2017 update to the Ulster County Multijurisdictional All-Hazard Mitigation Plan. The Ulster County Department of Environment is committed to helping our under-staffed and often under-equipped rural towns and villages elevate potential flood mitigation projects and actions to the County, State, and Federal levels. With additional support from Ulster County, we hope that at-risk communities will be more capable of doing preemptive planning, be able to better access necessary funding, and may be more willing to implement mitigation measures, so as to reduce the devastating effects in future flood events. In the face of a changing climate, perhaps now more than ever, there are opportunities and incentives for both County government and local municipalities to begin to take actions that will reduce flood risk and vulnerability in the future. Ulster County is now better equipped to provide coordination back to other County Departments, but also to better direct assistance and resources to some of its most flood-vulnerable townships (primarily Denning, Hardenburgh, Olive, Shandaken and Woodstock). The position fills a need identified by Ulster County and the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program, particularly after the flooding associated with tropical storm Irene. This expanded focus is a result of a partnership between the County Department of Environment and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County. The purpose of this work is to help build community resiliency before the next flood disaster, as well as providing hands-on support for local communities and County officials to better respond after the next flooding event. Since that time, a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) has been on staff to assist component municipalities and other County departments in planning, project implementation, education/training, grant-writing, and offering technical assistance. In 2014, on the heels of a series of flood events, the Department of Environment expanded its focus by hiring an Environmental Planner dedicated to working on flood hazard mitigation in the portions of the County with the highest flood risk. The Ulster County Department of Environment has been providing technical assistance on environmental issues to local municipalities since its inception in 2009.
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