County commissioners are all on board with asking for $13 million to raise structures across the county.

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, Beaufort County Emergency Management Director John Pack received authorization to apply for several FEMA hazard mitigation grants, in addition to applying for a new program that, if accepted, would pay for the demolition and reconstruction of five houses in the county.

With the hazard mitigation funding, several problem areas will be targeted, primary among them the Heritage Drive apartment complexes that have a history of flooding.

“Some have flooded nine times in 10 years,” Pack told commissioners at the January meeting. “FEMA’s very interested in getting them out of there.”

Pack said he could have the grant submitted for expedited mitigation by the end of the month.

“(It’s) $2.1 million to remove 20 units out there. The deed to the land will go to the city, who will then be able to put a stormwater retention facility in, utilizing some of the property there that’s down from the airport, plus where these units come out of, to help reduce the stormwater flooding below that facility and to the adjoining streets,” Pack said.

Pack said stormwater hitting those buildings, spilling into neighboring streets and flooding beneath houses there had destroyed HVAC systems — seven claims have been filed by homeowners and honored by FEMA.

Fifty more structures could be raised across the county with another grant, Pack said. The 50 structures are currently on the list of structures that have suffered severe repetitive loss or repetitive loss. Some of the homes have been flooded 10 times but the homeowners have had to pay out of pocket for damage because they never reached the threshold for provable losses. Others are houses that, when flood maps are redrawn in the next two years, will no longer be included in the flood plain.

“Once they go out of the flood plain, there’ll be no chance of ever getting those houses elevated using a FEMA program because there will be no benefit cost associated with it, because they’re not in the flood plain anymore,” Pack said.

He said the structures are located throughout the county, and many of their owners are senior citizens with fixed incomes or residents with low income who can’t afford $2,000-$3,000 in flood insurance a year.

Pack will apply for two $5 million grants; each would pay for the elevation of 25-30 structures.

Five homes — one in the City of Washington, another in Belhaven and three in the county —fall under a separate mitigation reconstruction category, Pack said. These homes are not structurally sound enough to withstand elevation and would be cost prohibitive for homeowners to make them structurally sound even with FEMA paying for elevation. Instead, with an $850,000 mitigation reconstruction grant, the homes would be torn down and replaced with new structures that cannot exceed 1,200 square feet. While the grant would pay for demolition and reconstruction, the county could be responsible for initial surveys, title searches and potential fees which Pack said could run between $1,500-$2,000 per home. Commissioners approved $10,000 from the general fund should it be needed.

“$10,000 to build five houses for five worthy families that are going to be paying taxes, and those houses are going to be around for a long time,” Pack said. “We’re going to be getting the money back very, very quickly on taxes on those structures.”

Currently, none of the properties are valued over $37,000, Pack said.

Commissioners voted 7-0 to authorize Pack to move forward with the grant application. Prior to Pack’s request, Public Work Director Christina Smith got the go-ahead to apply for a grant to acquire and install emergency generators at county water treatment facilities and pump stations through the same Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.