U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan has allocated more than $47 million throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to help local communities to recover from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in the summer of 2011.

These grants, part of $514 million allocated among nine states nationwide, are provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program to support long-term disaster recovery efforts in areas with the greatest extent of 'unmet need.'

HUD is allocating $29,986,000 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support long-term recovery activities in the hardest-hit areas following Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. In addition, Luzerne County will receive $9,763,000 and Dauphin County will receive $7,632,000 directly from HUD. The funding announced today supplements more than $49 million HUD allocated throughout Pennsylvania in January of 2012.

“In the last two years, many communities have had to deal with the reality of our changing climate and the increasing severity of natural disasters,” said Donovan. “HUD is continuing to work closely with state and local partners to help them realize a locally driven vision for restoring and rebuilding housing, infrastructure, and businesses that have been affected.”

The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, signed into law by President Obama on January 29th, included $16 billion in CDBG-Disaster Recovery funding. Eight days later, HUD announced a first round of aid totaling $5.4 billion to five states and the City of New York impacted by Hurricane Sandy. HUD will announce additional allocations throughout the year based upon the level of remaining needs to help other states and local communities impacted by natural disasters in 2011-2013.

HUD’s CDBG-Disaster Recovery grants are intended to confront housing, business and infrastructure needs beyond those addressed by other forms of public and private assistance. Using a combination of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), HUD identified those states and local communities requiring the greatest assistance to recover from devastating tornadoes in the Southeast and Missouri; remnants of Hurricanes Irene and Lee in the Northeast and New England; severe flooding in parts of North Dakota; and destructive wildfires in Texas.

HUD will shortly publish a Notice that will regulate the use of the funds allocated in the announcement. State and local grantees will then finalize disaster 'action plans' describing how they intend to expend these funds to support disaster recovery and HUD will quickly review them.