McClain County Mass Notification
FEMA Safe Room Rebates
FEMA through Oklahoma Emergency Management offers a grant under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to assist individuals with the cost of purchasing and having a safe room installed. Both above or below ground safe rooms, known to some as a shelter, are eligible under this grant if they meet design and installation requirements. The grant is a reimbursement grant, so the individual must pay for the entire cost up front and submit the required paperwork by the deadline for the eligible reimbursement amount. You must be approved for participation to be eligible for the rebate. For information on current McClain County Safe Room Rebate Application see our post on this site.
How the program works
Each jurisdiction that has an approved Hazard Mitigation Plan with FEMA is eligible to apply for the grant. Part of the application is to submit a list of individuals who wish to participate. The jurisdiction is required to submit a list of participants (citizens who want to apply for the grant with the jurisdiction) as a part of the grant application. The jurisdiction must have double the amount of participants on their list for the amount of safe rooms being requested. In other words, if McClain County wants to submit an application to request 100 safe rooms on the grant they must submit a list of 200 participants. This is due to the large number of people who drop out of the grant and the fact that once the state obligates that funding any unused portion must be returned to FEMA.
Once a jurisdiction has submitted an application with the list of participants all of the properties of the participants go for Environmental, Historical, Archeological, and Floodplain review. Once review is complete the state has up to 18 months to review and make a decision on the application. If the state approves the grant they then send it to FEMA for their review. FEMA also has up to 18 months to make a decision. There are times grants can be processed quickly and times they take a very long time. There are many factors that can impact how long it takes.
Once a jurisdiction is approved for the grant they must do a drawing to select from the approved list of participants to see who gets a safe room. All other participants are held as alternates in case a participant drops out. The jurisdiction then selects a start date, a completion date, and schedules a meeting with the participants and in some cases the alternates are also invited. The jurisdiction provides all the requirements and rules along with documentation that the participant will be required to submit to get their reimbursement. No work or contract with a safe room vendor can be done before the start date or the shelter is not eligible for reimbursement. All rules must be followed and all paperwork submitted by the completion date to be eligible for reimbursement. Much like the grant process itself, at times reimbursement is processed quickly and at times it can take a long time before you receive reimbursement. In many cases, and is the case with any McClain County grants, the reimbursement amount is 75% of the cost up to the maximum rebate of $2000.00.
At times it can be confusing because both the county and several jurisdictions will be running their own grant project. Each jurisdiction must wait to close one grant before they can start another. So when communities within the county can come up with enough participants to apply for a grant they do. You must live within city or town limits to participate in the community grant whereas all residents of McClain County can apply for grants done by the county no matter what community they live in. In addition, Oklahoma Emergency Management runs a rotating grant project called SoonerSafe that you can also register for. Citizens can apply for participation in multiple grant projects; however if you are approved as a participant for one you must drop out of the other.
Basic Requirements for Participation in a Safe Room Rebate Program
For more information about safe rooms visit FEMA’s Safe Room Resources page.