City of Russell to Receive $2 Million to Fund Second Phase of Power Distribution System Rebuild

The City of Russell will receive $2,039,650 to fund the second phase of a project that will rebuild the entire power distribution system from the north Russell city limits from St. John Street to Culp and 9th Street to the 1900 block of North Main Street.

Multiple communities, states, local governmental entities and two tribal nations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska are one step closer to reducing the impacts of natural disasters after being chosen to receive more than $41 million in resiliency grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency announced September 1.

The grant awards are from FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which helps states, local communities, tribes and territories fund projects that reduce the risks from disasters and emphasize the need for resilient infrastructure.

"These grants are going to be such an important piece of our communities' work to better withstand disasters," said Andrea Spillars, FEMA Region 7 Administrator. "The more we can help protect people and property before a disaster strikes, the more resilient a community can become in the long term."

The landmark influx of money to FEMA's annual resilience grant programs came from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The appropriation offered an infusion of funding from $1.16 billion to more than $3 billion for fiscal year 2022, significantly improving the opportunities for more communities to get help funding projects that will lessen the impacts of disasters.

BRIC projects – one from each Midwest state – were chosen through a nationally competitive process. In all, 124 FEMA grants totaling $1.8 billion in federal cost share were chosen among all 10 FEMA regions in 38 states including 115 communities, one Native American tribe, territories and the District of Columbia.

The other Midwest BRIC projects are:

• City of Coralville, Iowa – $13,872,342 to replace existing overhead power lines with underground electrical infrastructure. The goal is to protect the electrical system from wind and ice loading during winter storms and significant wind events during summer storms.
• City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri – $9,375,000 to provide backup natural gas-powered generators to protect the ongoing water supply at the Blackman Water Treatment Plant in the event of a power outage due to tornadoes, ice storms or cyber attacks.
• City of St. Edward, Nebraska - $1,402,003 to restore the banks of Beaver Creek to prevent future flooding and, therefore, reduce property damage.

(Information courtesy FEMA.)