FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2026
CONTACT:
John Neurohr, [email protected], 717-364-6452
Defunding, Dismantling, and Disarray details how the Trump administration’s 2025 overhaul of FEMA left small Appalachian communities more vulnerable to disaster, with projects in West Virginia and Pennsylvania still waiting on funding they were promised
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APPALACHIA — The borough of Duryea, Pennsylvania, a community of approximately 5,000 residents on the Lackawanna River, has sustained millions of dollars in flood damage over the past three years. Local officials had identified a federally supported solution: raising the town’s levee by roughly three feet at an estimated cost of $11 million — nearly three times Duryea’s annual budget. They had already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in engineering and design work in preparation for a federal grant application, but in April 2025, the Trump administration terminated the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program that was expected to fund the project.
A new report released today by ReImagine Appalachia, Defunding, Dismantling, and Disarray: How the Trump Administration’s Changes to FEMA in 2025 Made Appalachian Communities More Vulnerable to Disaster, tells the story of what happened to towns like Duryea, and what is still happening, even after a federal court ordered the program restored.
“Appalachian communities cannot afford this kind of back and forth,” said Anastasia Harouse, co-author of the report and Policy Intern at ReImagine Appalachia. “Towns spent years planning, applied in good faith, and were selected for funding. Then the rug was pulled out from under them in the middle of a flood season. Even now, a year later, some of these communities are still waiting on the money they were promised.”
The report, authored by Anastasia Harouse and Dana Kuhnline, documents a year of administrative, legislative, and legal setbacks at FEMA in 2025 and the real consequences for small towns across Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia. Key findings include:
- Multiple Appalachian towns in the region lost funding they had been selected for or were preparing to apply for, including Duryea, Pennsylvania, Rand, West Virginia, and Pound, Virginia.
- The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program was terminated on April 4, 2025 — the same day floodwaters and tornadoes hit Kentucky, killing at least seven people and triggering a statewide emergency declaration.
- In Pound, Virginia (population 913), FEMA representatives met with local leaders in January 2025 to plan technical assistance for a flood-resiliency strategy. After the BRIC termination, the town could not finish the plan and is back to square one after years of work.
- Kentucky alone lost $9 million in already-selected BRIC projects and $23 million in pending applications.
- FEMA lost 2,446 active employees between January and June 2025, including 24 senior executives — a loss of institutional knowledge that hit just as hurricane season began.
- The average time for the president to act on a disaster declaration request jumped from 32 days under the Biden administration to 57.6 days under Trump, with Democratic-led states approved at a rate of only 23% compared to 89% for Republican-led states.
The damage didn’t end when BRIC came back
A federal court ordered BRIC reinstated on December 11, 2025, and a follow-up enforcement ruling on March 6, 2026, required FEMA to reopen applications. FEMA released a new $1 billion Notice of Funding Opportunity on March 25, 2026, with an application deadline of July 23, 2026.
But the damage from the lost year is real and ongoing.
The March 6, 2026, enforcement ruling should ensure that applicants receive the grant money they were already awarded, but as of May 2026, it is still unclear how quickly — or if — that will happen. This back-and-forth is obviously problematic for communities that have invested years in the planning and application process for these grants.
The new round of BRIC funding also comes with new barriers. Eligible activities are narrower than in previous rounds, prioritizing construction-ready infrastructure projects. While small, impoverished communities will receive a scoring bonus, the end of funding for Hazard Mitigation Plans and tighter limits on capacity-building projects create real problems for many Appalachian towns, which often need exactly that kind of planning support to get a shovel-ready project across the finish line.
Why this matters in Appalachia
Between 2015 and 2025, Appalachia was hit by 44 presidentially declared flooding disasters. Since 2000, flooding has claimed more than 300 lives in the region. Communities across Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, Southern West Virginia, and beyond have experienced major flooding in February 2021, July 2022, September 2024, and again in February 2025, as well as severe weather and tornadoes in early April 2025.
FEMA funding is not optional for these places — it is the difference between rebuilding and being left behind. In West Virginia, a single peak disaster year would cost more than 24% of the state’s entire reserve fund without federal support. In Kentucky, it would cost 15.5%.
“This isn’t a story about typical bureaucratic delay — it’s about communities being left exposed while floods keep coming,” said report co-author Dana Kuhnline. “We’ve all seen the storms coming more often and causing more damage. With every new storm, people in Appalachia are lying in bed listening to the rain and wondering if it means another catastrophic flood. We know the work that needs to be done, and we’re ready to do it. BRIC is a program that works — every $1 invested saves $6 in future disaster costs. Shutting it down for a year was, frankly, cruel. Rural communities continue to pay the price for these nonsensical political games being played by the Trump Administration.”
WATCH A RECORDING OF THE REPORT RELEASE WEBINAR
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ReImagine Appalachia is a coalition of policy experts, advocates, and community leaders across Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia working to build a 21st-century economy that is sustainable, equitable, and good for working people.