Section: EDA Success Story

February 2013 Newsletter

Providing Disaster Relief and Recovery: In KY, MO, and TN, EDA
Makes a Critical Difference

EDA funding is often vital to ensuring the long-term economic health of communities affected by a disaster. In Joplin, Missouri, for example, EDA provided $341,000 after that community was devastated by tornadoes in 2011. Those funds allowed the state to hire economic recovery coordinators who were instrumental in building strong public-private partnerships that have been critical to restoring the economic vitality of that region.

That same year, severe storms and floods devastated many parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. Millions of dollars in EDA disaster grants to these two states have helped fund the rebuilding of critical infrastructure that employers need. In Somerset, Kentucky, for example, EDA provided $1.8 million to upgrade critical wastewater infrastructure and mitigate flooding in an industrial area. This investment helped to create 330 new jobs and attracted more than $14.2 million in private investment. In Tennessee, the city of Nashville received $1 million to implement a regional marketing strategy that will support the city's economic recovery by promoting the hospitality industry, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the wake of the flooding.