Rep. Huffman Secures $4.1 Million for Tribal Wildfire and Evacuation Route Preparedness

April 15, 2024

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) announced that he secured $4.1 million in federal funding for the California North Coast Tribal Wildfire and Evacuation Route Preparedness project in Humboldt and Siskiyou counties. Funds for this grant were awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Discretionary Grant Program. This funding was made possible thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Congressman Huffman helped pass.

About the Project

The California Department of Transportation will receive $4.1 million to develop a plan that identifies evacuation route improvements for State Routes 96 and 169, focusing on resilience elements against wildfire, extreme weather impacts, and other climate related events. This project will improve and protect access for disadvantaged communities, including Hoopa, Karuk, Yurok and Tsnungwe Tribes, to obtain goods, services, and medical care, connection to cultural resources, and emergency access in and out of the region.

About the Funding

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), PROTECT Grant program provides funding to ensure surface transportation resilience to natural hazards including climate change, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-risk coastal infrastructure.