Oneida County Awarded FEMA Direct Technical Assistance for Oriskany Creek

County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. announced today that Oneida County was selected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) to support climate resilience planning and flood mitigation project solution design in the affected communities of the Oriskany Creek watershed. 

“Once again, Oneida County is leading the way to combat tough issues,” Picente said. “Being selected by FEMA for Direct Technical Assistance will allow us to fast-track projects throughout the Oriskany Creek watershed that mitigate flooding and build long-term resiliency in those areas. This gives us a game-changing ability to further protect our residents and businesses from the devastating affects of flooding.”

This is the FEMA DTA program’s second year of operation, with a total of 74 communities having been selected nationally. Oneida County was one of 39 localities —and the only one in New York State— to be chosen in this round.

While the DTA program does not feature financial aid, FEMA will provide at no cost to Oneida County, access to engineers, architects and other professionals to identify projects and support local efforts, including:

• Resiliency planning assistance
• Plan scoping
• Applying for Building Resilient Infrastructure & Communities (BRIC) grants and finding other grants that match that money
• Engineering and architectural design
• Community visioning outreach
• Partnership building
• Advanced hydraulic modeling
• Targeted research by universities
• Financial, budget and grant management

DTA includes an assigned staff from the FEMA Region 2 office to support the program implementation in coordination with the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES). The agreement will be in place for 36 months.