Black Mountain Awarded $1.94 Million to Advance Flat Creek Flood Mitigation

The Town of Black Mountain has been awarded $1,938,000 (one million, nine hundred thirty-eight thousand dollars) from the North Carolina Emergency Management Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund to advance the Flat Creek Flood Mitigation Project, the town said in a press release posted February 19, 2026 on its NewsFlash page. The grant is intended to move forward targeted infrastructure work to reduce flood risk in Flat Creek drainage areas.

The press release says the Flat Creek project will work across three project areas and specifically calls for replacement of 10 undersized culverts with 15 larger culverts and stabilization of approximately 760 linear feet of streambanks adjacent to the culverts. The town framed those components as measures to increase stormwater capacity and stabilize the stream corridor.

Jessica Trotman, Assistant Town Manager and Recovery & Resilience Officer, provided the release’s quoted response on the award. Trotman said, “This project represents exactly the kind of investment our community needs to reduce flood,” and added, “By addressing known infrastructure limitations and pairing culvert upgrades with stream stabilization, we’re making Black Mountain safer, more resilient, and better able to handle extreme weather events.”

The release describes the Flat Creek effort as “a major infrastructure investment aimed at reducing flood risk and improving public safety in flood-prone neighborhoods,” and places the award in the context of recent resilience funding the town has secured. The Recovery & Resilience Office has pursued a series of grants and the release lists $5,000,000 for water system improvements, $2,450,000 for disaster recovery projects, $1,650,000 for flood benching initiatives, and $1,000,000 for Sutton Avenue stormwater improvements.

Town officials say the Flat Creek improvements are intended to reduce roadway flooding, protect nearby homes and infrastructure, and enhance overall public health and safety by increasing stormwater capacity and strengthening community resilience for future storm events. Those intended outcomes appear repeatedly in the town’s Feb. 19 press release as the stated benefits of the culvert and streambank work.

The press release does not include a construction schedule, names of contractors, or street-level mapping for the three project areas, nor does it state whether the $1,938,000 covers the total project cost or represents partial funding. The town also did not include permit status, procurement timelines, or a breakdown of how the grant dollars will be allocated between culvert replacement and streambank stabilization.

The $1,938,000 award builds on Black Mountain’s recent resilience investments and advances the town’s stated goal of increased stormwater capacity in Flat Creek; the next steps for the project will require the town to publish a project timeline, procurement plan, and detailed maps identifying the specific culverts and neighborhoods where work will occur.