CBJ has gotten no FEMA project funds for ’24 glacial flood due to Trump administration freeze, officials say
- Mark Sabbatini
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Nationwide holds means state also unable to distribute some grants from past fiscal year; officials say they aren’t getting answers, situation may continue this year
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Juneau’s municipal government has received none of its expected Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for public assistance projects after the 2024 glacial flood that damaged hundreds of homes, part of a hold on funds nationwide by the Trump administration that is continuing into this year, according to city and state officials.
About $1.7 million for an estimated 10 flood-related projects are on hold, said Ryan O'Shaughnessy, emergency programs manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, in an interview Thursday. Those projects include things the city has already paid for, such as debris removal and street repairs, with the expectation of being reimbursed by the federal agency.
"We have not seen any reimbursements for public assistance," he said.
City Manager Katie Koester, in a text message Thursday, stated many of the projects officially remain "in the final review stage at FEMA Headquarters."
The issue isn’t entirely at the federal level since funding for three of the projects has been provided to the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, but not passed on to the city, O'Shaughnessy said.
A Jan. 29 email from the state agency to grant recipients "acknowledges the deviation from our historical grant timelines for the preparedness and non-disaster grants we administer."
"Since the issuance of Alaska’s award in September, DHS&EM leadership and staff have contacted FEMA on a weekly basis seeking clarification on the actions needed to release the funding hold and allow subrecipient awards to proceed," the email from division Deputy Director Tiffany Peltier states. "To date, FEMA has not provided additional information and has been unable to project when guidance will be issued, as the matter remains under review by FEMA Headquarters."
Inquiries sent at midday Monday by the Juneau Independent to FEMA’s listed media contact did not receive a response as of early Monday evening.
Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the state emergency division, said Monday the expectation is grant funding approved by FEMA will ultimately be distributed to recipients, but the timing is uncertain.
"We are working under the assumption that the approved grant funding will be made available to the state so we can provide it to our subgrantees," Zidek said.
However, further caution about the situation ahead "given the limited information currently available" was issued by Peltier in her email. Among the unknowns is a possible partial federal government shutdown at the end of this week that would hit FEMA and other agencies.
"FEMA-GO will likely be shut-down again which means further delays to FY25 grant awards (that are already months late)," she wrote. In addition, "the already slow disaster reimbursements will be further delayed due to lack of staffing or system shut-downs."
The possible shutdown is due to disputes in Congress about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement operations under Trump. A 43-day federal government shutdown last fall added further complications to the uncertanty about FEMA funds, according to Peltier.
"On October 1, 2025, FEMA staff were furloughed and unable to respond to inquiries regarding FFY 2025 awards," she wrote. "When FEMA staff returned on November 12, they indicated they had not received guidance from FEMA Headquarters on how to address recipient questions related to the funding hold, the revised period of performance, or the increased award amounts."
The hold on public assistance funds does not apply to individual disaster grants and loans, which were sought by many of the residents in the roughly 300 Mendenhall Valley homes affected by the flood that peaked Aug. 6, 2024. Some households were receiving FEMA funds less than two months after that flood, following then-President Joe Biden’s federal disaster declaration in mid-September.
The FEMA situation also doesn’t directly affect funding for local flood protection resources from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is providing short-term assistance such as HESCO barriers as well as work toward a long-term solution.
Widespread disruptions involving FEMA funds are occurring nationally due to ongoing policy shifts following President Donald Trump’s assertions the agency should be downsized or eliminated, and states should take on a greater responsibility for emergency management.
FEMA, for instance, last Thursday ordered an indefinite halt to all awards of less than $100,000, according to The New York Times. A directive in effect since last June states U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s office has to review all expenditures of $100,000 or more, which the Times reports "created a bottleneck in disaster aid spending that reached $17 billion last year."
The freeze on grants under $100,000 affected two Juneau projects totaling about $90,000, according to Koester.
While Juneau awaits $1.7 million in flood money from FEMA, the Miami Herald reported Friday that "Florida’s state government has yet to receive a penny of the more than $600 million in funding awarded during the fall by the Federal Emergency Management Agency" for the construction of the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention camp. The newspaper reported that Florida’s state government, like Juneau, expected reimbursement for project costs.
The Anchorage Daily News reported Jan. 30 that federal officials have denied Alaska’s request to cover all initial expenses associated with the large-scale response to Typhoon Halong in the western part of the state last fall. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is appealing the decision with a revised request that FEMA pay 90% of the cost, the total amount of which is still unknown, the newspaper reported.
Zidek said a 75%-25% federal-state split is common with most FEMA disaster requests.
"The state has the ability to request a different cost share when we see very high cost disasters," he said. "But it's not a given that we get those."
That dynamic could play out in the flood funding Juneau is seeking from the Army Corps of Engineers. Katie Kachel, a lobbyist hired by CBJ for federal issues, told city leaders last month she plans to ask the federal government to cover the full cost of the long-term project, then seek 90% if that fails.
The $1.7 million in withheld FEMA funds is relatively small compared to CBJ’s overall annual municipal budget of roughly $200 miliion ($478 million including entities such as the Juneau School District and Bartlett Regional Hospital), although city leaders are facing a cash crunch due to tax cuts passed by voters last fall. However, a preferred long-term flood solution referred to as a "lake tap" has a projected cost of $613 million to $1 billion, meaning a potentially enormous cost to the city if a 10% or 25% match is required.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
