Office of Resilience requests infrastructure and staffing funds after hurricane response efforts
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Summary
The Office of Resilience described disaster-recovery and mitigation work, including buyouts, home repairs and a large Hurricane Helene grant, and asked lawmakers for recurring and one-time funds for infrastructure projects, monitoring devices, and records systems.
The Office of Resilience briefed a legislative subcommittee on recoveries and mitigation tied to recent hurricanes and flooding, asking for both programmatic and administrative funding to expand work with local governments.
Why it matters: The office said it has mobilized grants and programs to repair or replace homes, fund mitigation projects and support local planning — including a $150,000,000 CDBG-EDR-style allocation tied to Hurricane Helene recovery and a FEMA grant for disaster case management. Officials said those efforts are time-sensitive and require state matching or bridge funds to access federal programs.
Key accomplishments and grants: The office reported hiring seven watershed coordinators covering eight watersheds, participation in projects totaling ~86,000 acres, a multistate conservation grant where South Carolina’s share is cited as $86,000,000, and a $209,000 NFWF grant for nature-based coastal resilience. The office also said it had secured a FEMA grant for disaster case management and planned to repair or replace up to 700 homes tied to the Helene recovery program.
Budget and program requests: The office listed major requests including $30,000,000 recurring and $30,000,000 nonrecurring for statewide infrastructure and mitigation projects, support for voluntary buyouts and match funds for federal grants, and a nonrecurring proposal to deploy 500 real-time bridge/stream monitoring devices (total $2,400,000) to improve flood warnings. Administrative requests included funding for a comprehensive grants/finance system, building-security work for a planned Bull Street office move, and staff-retention dollars.
Clarifications and caveats: Transcript figures include several large dollar amounts and program totals that were stated conversationally and may require verification in budget documents; for example, a staff-retention or personnel figure cited as $629,100,000 in the briefing appears inconsistent with other line items and should be confirmed in official budget submissions.
Next steps: The office’s requests will be evaluated through the normal budget-review process; members of the committee asked for more detail on project lists and matching strategies.