Duluth’s Request For Federal Flood Aid Denied

Amount Would Have Been $76 Million

Duluth has come up short of bringing in millions of dollars of federal aid to the city for recovery efforts from the 2012 flood and for ways to combat another disaster.

Duluth made the first cut of cities looking for the millions of dollars in federal aid, but wasn’t on the receiving end of the funding in the final round.

The city asked for $76 million to finish disaster recovery and look at ways to make the community more resilient moving forward if another another disaster were to strike.

The money would have gone toward projects like slowing the flow of water in the Hillside, replacing old steam pipes, and assisting with repairs to homes still dealing with flood damage.

“It was a great community effort, great community collaborative and what we’ve come up with that way of planning that way of responding is something we carry forward,” said Keith Hamre, Director of Planning and Construction Services.

The city cannot apply for the same grant again, but officials say finding revenue from other grants and resources is in the works.

“There are a lot of disasters that we call low attention disasters. They’re not the Super Storm Sandy. They’re not Katrina but we have communities and individuals that still suffer the impacts so figuring how communities like Duluth and the Minnesota that had six presidential declared disasters can be stronger moving forward and is really key,” said Jodi Slick, CEO of Equilibrium 3.

The federal disaster program only decided to award 13 grants across the country.