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Terrebonne council obligates FEMA/HMGP funds to elevate several homes, approves related study
Summary
The council approved resolutions to obligate FEMA/FMA and HMGP funds to raise multiple flood-prone homes and authorized a FEMA-funded cost guidance study to align elevation project costs with federal guidelines.
Terrebonne Parish Council voted to obligate federal funds to elevate several residential structures and to proceed with a FEMA-funded study to update cost guidance for parish mitigation projects.
Resolutions approved included FMA-funded elevation for a house at 113 Sunnyacres Street and HMGP obligations for homes at 217 Donald Drive and 4678 Highway 56. Council records show the motions were moved and recorded as passing during the meeting; staff said each project uses a specific project number under the parish’s Hurricane Rita allocations.
Councilmembers also approved a resolution authorizing the parish president to expend FEMA HMGP funding for a cost guidance study. Planning staff explained the study is largely administrative: the vendor will examine proposed scopes and costs for home-elevation projects and compare them to national-average cost guidance so projects proposed to FEMA align with what FEMA will fund. Members sought clarification on the study’s not-to-exceed amounts, whether unused allotments would revert to state or be reallocated to other parishes, and how the parish’s larger $8.1 million program income pool interacts with these allocations.
Staff said the study will inform which houses and what measures (for example, home elevation) are reasonable to pursue in future HMGP rounds and will not itself commit the parish to large construction outlays beyond existing project allocations. The council recorded the motions as passing and asked staff to provide follow-up details on funding caps and reallocation rules.
The parish will proceed with the study and the listed elevation projects under the grant numbers discussed; more detailed procurement and project schedules will be provided to the council as project managers finalize scopes.
