Eleven states in the eastern U.S. will split $102.7 million in federal grants to safeguard risks of future natural disasters.
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resilience Grant Program will fund a variety of projects, with New York and New Jersey receiving the highest funds, to protect communities at risk from future big storms like the October 2012 storm that slammed the East Coast. The full list of projects can be found here.
The money comes from a Sandy relief bill passed by Congress.
The Interior department says the projects will open up 600 jobs in local communities, according to the AP, allotting special consideration in hiring young people and veterans.
The Interior department said the projects will renew an estimated 6,634 acres of wetlands and marshes; 225 acres of beach; 364 acres of tidal buffers, and 16 miles of streams. The efforts will also open 287 miles of streams to fish passage, and restore 147 acres of floodplains.
"We know we have a lot to learn from Mother Nature," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told the Associated Press. "Climate change is going to make weather events more frequent and more severe."
New Jersey’s 13 projects tackle items like restoration of beaches, wetlands, salt marshes and urban areas including Hoboken. Other funded projects aim to improve water quality and shoreline conditions and protections.
New York’s 11 funded projects address an oyster colony, flood mitigation, state park protection, water quality improvement and reconnection of land-locked areas.
Funding also contributed to several projects along rivers, including in the inland states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Grants will also fund projects in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Virginia, and two regional multi-state projects.