This week, President Biden and Vice President Harris met
with Governors from Western States and announced that Sonoma
County will receive $37 million in wildfire mitigation
funds.
Sonoma County was one of the first to apply for the new Building
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which
replaces the former Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM)
program. According to FEMA, jurisdictions applied
for $3.6 billion in funds, but only $500 million
was available for distribution in the current grant cycle. The
program aids primarily with flood control, infrastructure and
utility resilience, and retrofitting of buildings, but also aids
in various other costs including wildfire prevention measures.
At the meeting, also attended by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Biden said he
is temporarily raising pay for federal firefighters to ensure
that no one fighting wildland fires is making less than $15
per hour. Governor Gavin Newsom also announced on
Tuesday that the state had secured a Fire Management
Assistance Grant (FMAG) from FEMA, specifically to address the
ongoing Lava Fire in Siskiyou County. The grant, Newsom said,
will assist local, state, and tribal agencies responding to the
fire, and they can apply for 75-percent reimbursement of eligible
fire suppression costs.
