“If we have emergency funds remaining, we can reserve those into next year,” Wharton said. “So it would be the $1 million plus whatever we reserve from 2025, and we can start building it that way.”
Wharton said these emergency funds typically act as a stopgap covering city preparations ahead of severe weather and clean up efforts afterward, until federal aid becomes available. But the proposed changes, which haven’t yet been approved by Congress, would increase the amount of damage required before FEMA’s assistance would kick in.
Those updates would subsequently raise South Carolina’s damage threshold from about $10 million to $41 million — a 300 percent increase.
Wharton said the state received about $38 million in FEMA funding after Hurricane Dorian in 2019; $25 million for Hurricane Ian in 2022; and $16 million after Hurricane Debby rolled through in 2024. Based on the proposed increases, the state would not have qualified for federal aid following any of those storms, Wharton said.
That means the city’s costs for those storms — $3 million for Dorian; $1.1 million for Ian; and $351,000 for Debby — wouldn’t have been covered.
“So you see this is kind of a big deal for us,” Wharton said.
The city’s figures didn’t include expenses from Helene, the deadliest storm in the state’s history.
Typically, most of Charleston’s storm response is caused by tropical weather events, but Wharton said the city has had some costs associated winter weather in past years. The current proposal eliminates disaster declarations for snowstorms, she said.
The changes would also apply to the type of facilities that are eligible for disaster funding, Wharton said. Recreational infrastructure, such as docks, piers, ball fields, tennis courts, playgrounds and swimming pools, would no longer be covered if damaged.
