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Lake County supervisor: federal mitigation funding freezes and BRIC cuts leave wildfire-hit communities 'dead in the water'
Summary
Jessica Paiske, a Lake County, California supervisor who lost her home in the 2015 Valley Fire, told the Senate committee that federal mitigation grants and BRIC funding are essential to local resilience and that frozen or canceled funds are delaying implementation of projects to harden homes and communities.
Jessica Paiske, supervisor for Lake County, California, told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that her county has faced repeated catastrophic wildfires and that federal mitigation grants and BRIC funding have been essential to recovery and resilience efforts — and that recent freezes and proposed cuts are halting projects now ready to implement.
Why it matters: Local officials said federal mitigation grants fund workforce, forest-health projects, defensible space work and home-hardening programs that lower long-term risk and help preserve local housing markets and property-tax bases.
Paiske described long-term local effects from the 2015 Valley Fire: "The Valley Fire burned 76,000 acres, nearly 2,000 structures and claimed 4 lives. I lost my…
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