Cmr. George P. Bush releases Disaster Recovery Planning Studies Survey for Mitigation Funding

AUSTIN -Today Commissioner George P. Bush announced the Texas General Land Office (GLO) is releasing a survey to gather input from local officials, councils of government and river authorities for its Disaster Recovery Planning Studies Survey for Mitigation Funding. The survey requests input on planning study topics local leaders would like to prioritize using federal mitigation funding to lessen the impact of future disasters. Through these studies, the GLO will be encouraging regional planning coordination in addition to specific local solutions to promote sound long-term recovery.

"Today the GLO is releasing the Disaster Recovery Planning Studies Survey for Mitigation Funding to gather input from our local leaders on planning study topics they would like to explore through Community Development Block Grant for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding," said Commissioner Bush. "The valuable input we receive from our local leaders will help guide future studies to most effectively encourage regional planning coordination in maximizing use of future federal funding."

The survey will compile a list of planning study topics for areas that received a presidential disaster declaration resulting from the 2015 Floods, the 2016 Floods, or Hurricane Harvey. The survey will be distributed to local officials, councils of government and river authorities to request input for planning topics to include:

• Drainage improvements
• Resilient housing solutions
• Economic development
• Infrastructure improvements

The survey will be open until June 30, 2020. To participate in the survey, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3D6S3B2.

Background on $4.29 billion CDBG-MIT funding allocation

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the GLO's state action plan for Community Development Block Grant for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding on March 31, 2020.  Of the $4,383,085,000 in total HUD CDBG-MIT funds allocated to Texas, the Texas General Land Office will administer $4,297,189,000, including $214 million for regional and state planning studies and tools that work to reduce risk and impacts of future disasters. All 140 counties that are eligible for MIT funding are encouraged to participate in this survey. For more information on mitigation funding, please visit recovery.texas.gov/mitigation.

About GLO Community Development and Revitalization (CDR)

In addition to short-term housing in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the CDR division of the Texas General Land Office was appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to administer both Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) on behalf of the state of Texas. More than $14 billion have been allocated for recovery and mitigation following Hurricanes Rita, Dolly, and Ike, the 2011 wildfires, the 2015 and 2016 floods, Hurricane Harvey, 2018 South Texas floods and the 2019 disasters. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, infrastructure repair and long-term planning. For more information, please visit recovery.texas.gov.