Mitigating Flood Impacts in Montgomery County Through Tailored Grants Management Solutions

Project Overview

In 2018, Hagerty was awarded a four-year all-hazards contract by Montgomery County, Texas, to support their jurisdiction in navigating project eligibility, subapplication development, technical feasibility components, and grant management across multiple funding streams. After a successful partnership, Hagerty was reprocured in 2023 for an additional four years to continue essential preparedness, grants management, and recovery services, aiding the County in mitigating risks from flood disasters.

Throughout our contract lifespan, Hagerty has worked across four Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) and two Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) acquisition projects and one CDBG-DR infrastructure project. Through this work, our team of mitigation experts has conducted several extensive community outreach events, gaining homeowner participation throughout the County’s most vulnerable communities. Further, we developed comprehensive, tailored grant management plans for each project. Each plan identified program policies and procedures that helped the County strategically navigate Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations. Overall, Hagerty is proud to partner with Montgomery County to resolve complex challenges, reduce flood risk, and promote long-term resilience.

Understanding the Mission

Increasingly, properties across the county are at risk of damage from flood hazards, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and storm water run-off. Montgomery County is one of four counties that account for nearly 70 percent of all Repetitive Loss (RL) properties and 82 percent of all Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) properties across the entire state of Texas. Given this, prioritizing and implementing mitigation projects to reduce flood risk and damage is imperative to the safety and resilience of Montgomery’s community.

With this understanding, Hagerty and the County have worked together to address the multitude of RL, SRL, and Substantially Damaged (SD) properties impacted by disaster events with one goal in mind: remove all vulnerable flood prone properties throughout the County. To achieve this, our team focuses on federally funded acquisition projects, elevations projects, and improving drainage infrastructure.

Another major consideration throughout this project was the financial impacts of flood damage for property owners and the inundation of claims to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). To address this, we identified how purchasing high-risk residential properties voluntarily through the FMA and CDBG-DR program allows property owners to move outside of the Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA). This ultimately reduces NFIP claims and potential risks to life, property, and improves overall homeowner safety. By understanding these strategies as well as how to successfully navigate the complexities of this program, Hagerty has become a trusted partner to Montgomery County, committed to implementing a long-term, cohesive County wide mitigation strategy.

The Hagerty Approach

Our individualized flood mitigation approach has proven beneficial for Montgomery County in numerous ways. Through proactive community outreach coupled with effective subapplication development and project implementation, Hagerty has helped the County reduce the financial burden related to flood damage for both the community and NFIP. Additionally, we have supported the removal of vulnerable properties to be maintained as open green spaces. This effort has improved drainage by increasing natural water absorption, helping reduce the impacts of future flooding events. It has also enhanced natural resources and biodiversity, supported economic and financial stability, and created open space for recreation and community engagement.

In total, our expert team facilitated the successful delivery of high quality, cost-effective services and technically sound deliverables through efficient resource allocation and proactive project oversight. With responsive project management, coordination, and adherence to key milestones, our professionals supported positive project outcomes that meet local, state, and federal standards.

Achieving Results

Hagerty has played a leading role in the successful management and implementation of flood mitigation projects in Montgomery County. Our support includes:

• Developing seven FMA subapplications, five CDBG-Mitigation (MIT) subapplications, and one Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) subapplication.
• Collectively requesting over $160 million for five acquisition projects, one elevation project, one scoping project, and seven infrastructure projects.
• Establishing the foundation for project success and spearheading program management and regulatory compliance.
• Advancing project scoping subapplications into federally funded projects and managing the full project implementation with proactive coordination between regulatory agencies and the development of innovative tools to support project prioritization and execution.
• Conducting expert community outreach, case management, data collection and analysis, Environmental Review Record (ERR) coordination, and procurement support.
• Returning over 144 properties to perpetually open green spaces.
• Expediting the buyout process through our strategic standard operating procedures (SOPs), making Montgomery the first county in the state to fully mitigate flood-damaged properties in each FMA and CDBG-DR buyout project.
• Successfully closing over 90 percent of participating eligible properties within a four- to six-month period, allowing for the opportunity to pursue multiple Scope Modifications to acquire an additional 33 properties.

By advancing a coordinated portfolio of mitigation projects, Hagerty is helping the County improve drainage, remove flood-prone properties from the SFHA, and reduce long-term vulnerability — strengthening the community’s resilience to future flooding for years to come.