Under PROTECT and the Coastal Zone Management programs, are both tsunami and hurricane flooding/evacuation eligible?

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“IIJA”) defines the term “emergency event” as a natural disaster or catastrophic failure resulting in either an emergency declared by the Governor of the state or by the President of the United States.[1] As such, a tsunami or hurricane with the potential to cause harm to life, property, public health, and safety are likely considered eligible events for funding under the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (“PROTECT”) program, though municipalities should carefully analyze the underlying regulations.[2]

The term “evacuation route” refers to a transportation route or system that is owned, operated, or maintained by a federal, state, tribal, or local government and which is either used to transport the public away from emergency events or to transport emergency responders and recovery resources. An evacuation route must also serve the designated purposes of reducing the magnitude and duration of impacts from current and future weather events and natural disasters or having the absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and recoverability to decrease vulnerability to current and future weather events or natural disasters.[3] 

Under the PROTECT program, the type of emergency event is not limited; therefore, both tsunami and hurricane evacuation routes are likely eligible. In addition, several evacuation activities are explicitly identified as being eligible for funding. These include:

• improvements to the efficiency of evacuations and disaster relief;[4]
• evacuation planning and preparation;[5]
• improving the ability of the evacuation route to provide safe passage during an evacuation;[6]
• reducing the risk of damage to evacuation routes as a result of future emergency events, including:
  • restoring or replacing existing evacuation routes that are in poor condition;
  • restoring or replacing existing evacuation routes that are not designed to meet the anticipated demand during an emergency event;
  • taking steps to protect routes from mud, rock, or other debris slides; and,
  • expanding the capacity of evacuation routes to swiftly and safely accommodate evacuations in the event that existing evacuation routes are not equipped to adequately facilitate evacuations.[7]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) Coastal Zone Management program, however, is limited to ecosystem conservation pursuant to section 12502 of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.[8] Evacuation routes are not an eligible project type of the NOAA Coastal Zone Management program. This grant program focuses on:

• Protecting natural resources;
• Managing development in high hazard areas;
• Giving development priority to coastal-dependent uses;
• Providing public access for recreation;
• Prioritizing water-dependent uses; and,
• Coordinating state and federal actions.[9]

Last Updated: July 13, 2023