FEMA won’t pay for worst-damaged section of Sea Pines beach
The feds will not fund a $6 million project to repair a stretch of beach where dozens of Sea Pines homes sit at risk following damage from Hurricane Matthew, a Hilton Head Island town official said Monday.
Town officials have said it is critical to repair the mile-long portion of South Beach where about 250,000 cubic yards of sand washed away during the October storm.
Hilton Head town manager Steve Riley previously said the town believed it would receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover up to 75 percent of the cost to repair that section of beach.
But that won’t be happening, Scott Liggett, the town’s engineer and director of public projects and facilities, said Monday. He said the town will have to pick up the total cost.
Liggett said FEMA will cover only repairs to portions of the beach that the town previously renourished. The mile stretch of South Beach was not renourished because sand naturally accumulates in that area, he said.
The town budgeted $8.2 million for beach repairs in the wake of the hurricane, which included the $6 million South Beach project, out of a total estimated $82 million in hurricane costs. Local officials expected that FEMA would reimburse up to 75 percent of a majority of the costs, leaving the town about $26 million in out-of-pocket expenses.
The town’s costs could rise by about $4.5 million without the 75 percent reimbursement for the South Beach project.
The Town Council last month approved up to $20 million in loans to cover hurricane costs. Nearly $26 million in reserves already has already been spent by the town as it waits for FEMA reimbursement checks.
Liggett said Monday FEMA could cover renourishment of an adjacent section of South Beach that lost about 100,000 cubic yards of sand. That mile-long section was renourished during a town project last year.
A large cost of any renourishment project includes the hiring of the contractor providing the service, Liggett said. The town’s total cost would drop significantly if FEMA reimbursed for that, he said.
“Our largest cost might be the cost of sand,” he said.
The town is waiting on approval for permits to move forward with renourishment projects, though projected start dates are unknown, Liggett said.
Teresa Moss: 843-706-8152, @TeresaIPBG
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This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "FEMA won’t pay for worst-damaged section of Sea Pines beach."