Hurricane Sandy Recovery
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy tore a destructive path up the Eastern seaboard and beyond leaving damaged and destroyed historic resources in its wake. Following the successes of the Hurricane Katrina recovery grants with the same goals of identifying and saving the remaining historic resources the National Park Service received a total of $47.5 million in federal grant assistance for the historic preservation efforts of the SHPO offices in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia. Additionally, the THPO offices of The Narragansett Indian Tribe and Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Tribal Nation have received grant awards.
A copy of the Programmatic Agreement between the National Park Service, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and relevant States and Tribes is available for comment on the National Park Service's PEPC database.
The best Federal investments are often the result of partners working together. Building off a successful partnership between the National Park Service and several of the Gulf States following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the NPS awarded more than $47 million to twelve States and two Tribes affected by another natural disaster—Hurricane Sandy in the fall of 2012.
As part of a committed effort to help local municipalities and state and tribal governments to rebuild communities in the aftermath of this disaster, a substantial portion of the funding will go towards construction projects designed to stabilize or repair historic properties across the Eastern Seaboard in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Mashantucket Pequot and Narragansett tribes are included in this grant program.
In addition to assisting with the immediate needs of historic property owners, the Hurricane Sandy grant program is designed to foster partnerships between local, state, and federal community planners in order to ensure that important cultural resources are integrated with statewide hazard mitigation planning efforts. As climate change continues to reshape communities throughout this country, the Hurricane Sandy grant program is helping to provide the financial resources for municipalities and other government agencies to work together to protect the historic places of the United States, as well as the people who live there.
In addition to grant programs, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013 (P.L.113-2) (SRIA) authorized the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency may deliver disaster assistance under a variety of programs, and requires the President, in consultation with the Council on Environmental Quality and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) to establish a unified and expedited inter-agency environmental and historic preservation process for disaster recovery projects within 18 months of enactment.
Last updated: October 14, 2021