FEMA awards Louisiana $100 million in disaster resiliency. Here's how apply for next year.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has granted Louisiana more than $100 million in funds to build pre-disaster protections.

Louisiana has been chosen for two separate Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities projects to receive $51 million each. The money comes from the Hazard Mitigation Assistance and other grant sources. It can be used to protect from future property loss and to update buildings.

"So far, this year, we have awarded $51 million for two separate BRIC projects," FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said.

Eight projects total were submitted by Terrebonne and Lafourche, and of those, two were chosen: the Terrebonne Parish Jail at $31,871,053.19 and the Hung Dao Drainage Improvement Scoping in Cut Off at $834,960.

Criswell was in Louisiana on Tuesday to discuss the investments. She said now that the projects have been chosen, FEMA will review the cost/benefit analysis and environmental requirements of the projects. The money will come in phases as the projects are built.

"So now we work directly with those people that have been selected to get them through this process and through to the next phase so they can begin the architecture/engineering design pieces that have to be in place before they can actually break ground," she said.

The competitive money available each year varies, Criswell said, depending on the recovery cost of the previous year. The contest is announced each year, called the Notice of Funding Opportunity, around the late summer, and these recipients were chosen last year.

Criswell said this year's competitive portion already has been announced, with $800 million available. She encouraged those with project ideas to contact their local and state Hazard Mitigation officials. At the State level, according to FEMA's website, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Jeffrey Giering is the go-to and can be contacted via email at jeffrey.giering@la.gov.

For more information on the individual grants available, FEMA offers them here: https://www.grants.gov/

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Louisiana gets $100 million From FEMA toward disaster resiliency