{{headline}}
Matthew Delaney | mdelaney@wtop.com
December 23, 2021, 2:11 PM
Alexandria is a major beneficiary of Virginia’s latest round of flood prevention grants coming from the state.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that the state is doling out more than $24 million in grant money to 22 local governments around the commonwealth.
Alexandria is receiving the third-most grant money of any jurisdiction in the state, with its $3.75 million largely going toward improvements to the city’s historic waterfront and the remaining $500,000 being used for flood mitigation work along Edison and Dale streets.
The money comes from the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which receives its funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-state coalition along the mid-Atlantic and Northeast that is financed by the sale of carbon emission allowances.
“With this second round of awards, Virginia continues its efforts to combat flooding — the most common and costly natural hazard we face,” Northam said. “The Community Flood Preparedness Fund will provide an estimated $75 million a year to improve the resilience of our Commonwealth, including targeted funding for Virginia’s most vulnerable and underserved communities.”
Alexandria is all too familiar with the effects of flooding.
In August, overnight rains left the neighborhoods around the Braddock Road Metro Station battling basement floods thanks to overwhelmed storm drains.
And in October, the city’s Old Town area was in knee-deep water, including its main thoroughfare of King Street, thanks to storms with heavy rain that prompted severe coastal flooding of the tidal Potomac.
The city said that October’s storm was the third-highest tidal flooding event on record.
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission is also getting an $11,000 grant to create a dashboard for real-time flooding risk data.
Cities in the Hampton Roads area received the lion’s share of funding from the state.
Hampton will be getting more than one-third of the grant money, totaling $9.16 million spread over four separate projects. And Newport News will receive nearly $5 million to be put toward developing a master plan on stormwater and floodplain management.
Below is the full list of grant recipients and their respective uses announced by the state:
Matt Delaney is a digital web writer/editor who joined WTOP in 2020.
Like WTOP on Facebook and follow WTOP on Twitter and Instagram to engage in conversation about this article and others.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2021 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Need help accessing the FCC Public File due to a disability? Please contact Kris Shuldes at kshuldes@hbi.com or 651-642-4336.
Copyright © 2021 by WTOP. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.