OFFICIAL SITE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

(15/P9) TRENTON – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is hosting a public meeting at the Chelsea Heights School in Atlantic City on Friday, January 23, to identify future storm vulnerabilities and frame the unmet recovery needs in the Atlantic City  region as part of a billion-dollar National Disaster Resilience Competition.

The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the new competition, with a goal of helping to improve the resiliency of communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years.  There are 67 eligible applicants across the country for this $1 billion national competition.  The State of New Jersey is one of the eligible applicants for NDRC funding.

“This meeting will give residents, officials and other stakeholders from throughout the state the opportunity to inform DEP about vulnerable areas with unmet recovery needs and possible solutions to ongoing flooding and related problems that can be resolved, in part, through funding provided by this competition,” said DEP Deputy Commissioner David Glass. “The goal is to protect communities from future storms, such as Superstorm Sandy.”

The meeting will be Friday, January 23, 2015 at the Chelsea Heights School, 4101 Filbert Avenue, Atlantic City between the hours of 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Officials from the DEP, including staff from the Department’s Flood Hazard Risk Reduction Measures, will be on hand to listen to suggestions and answer questions.

This new Disaster Resilience Competition follows the successful HUD design competition called Rebuild by Design (RBD). RBD focused on developing conceptual plans to provide flood protection to vulnerable areas of New Jersey and other states affected by Superstorm Sandy. 

The new competition was authorized in June 2014 in response to demand from state, local and tribal leaders who are working to increase the safety and security of their communities. The competition will invite communities that have experienced natural disasters to compete for funds to help them rebuild and increase their resilience to future disasters. 

HUD, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, is providing significant resources and support to communities to help them become more resilient. The National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) is a two-phase process that will competitively award nearly $1 billion in HUD Disaster Recovery funds to eligible communities. The competition will help communities recover from prior disasters and improve their ability to withstand and recover more quickly from future disasters.

The competition is structured in two phases: a framing phase and an implementation
phase. During the framing phase, applicants will evaluate their disaster recovery needs, vulnerabilities, stakeholder interests, resilience, community development objectives, and investment alternatives. The second phase will allow applicants to consider and refine approaches to meet their needs and objectives identified during the framing phase.

All states with counties that experienced a Presidentially Declared Major Disaster in 2011, 2012
or 2013 are eligible to submit applications that address unmet needs as well as vulnerabilities to
future extreme events,

The National Disaster Resilience Competition is funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR). NJDEP is administering the application.

Additional information regarding the competition can be found at:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.hudexchange.info/cdbg-dr/resilient-recovery/__;!!J30X0ZrnC1oQtbA!ereTZ0VnsSe0tQyL6PgIRLx-L3CPpCQohkdBYWju8jZL0AWFg0s4SpIsjB51tUyVN2jJ1w$

For more information on the Rebuild by Design program, visit: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/__;!!J30X0ZrnC1oQtbA!ereTZ0VnsSe0tQyL6PgIRLx-L3CPpCQohkdBYWju8jZL0AWFg0s4SpIsjB51tUyqgyMIFQ$