When Federal Cuts Imperil a Crucial Project in a Red County

New York Times

2 days ago

Brian Shay, the administrator for the small city of Hoquiam, Wash., was waiting for a bus in Disney World when he received the worst news of his career.
He had been nervous for weeks that the cuts coming from Washington, D.C., would endanger a project he'd spent the last seven years getting off the ground — 12 miles of levees that would protect his coastal community from flooding.
Hoquiam is a city of about 8,700 people in Grays Harbor County, a foggy stretch of pine trees and sea gulls that was once the capital of the American logging industry. The area has flooded for as long as anybody can remember. The large harbor on the county's southern coast overflows in heavy rains or particularly high tides, making messes in basements and prompting the federal government years ago to declare parts of the area a flood zone.
About seven years ago, Mr. Shay, a third-generation Harborite, was among a group of local officials who decided that enough was enough.
They competed for, and won, $85 million in federal money to build the levee project, beginning in Donald J. Trump's first term. When he was re-elected, the money did not seem to be at risk. But once the administration got up and running — and began cutting, prolifically — Mr. Shay started to worry.
'We asked on every call, you know, 'Is there any issue? Anything to worry about here?'' he said in his office in Hoquiam last month. 'We were constantly told, 'Nope, nope. It's not at risk.''
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