Town receives $1.9 million grant for flood mitigation

Black Mountain project to address Flat Creek bank stabilization and stormwater conveyance

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
February 23, 2026

The Town of Black Mountain announced, Feb. 19, a $1.9 million grant through the N.C. Emergency Management Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund to advance the Flat Creek Flood Mitigation Project. The plan involves culvert replacement and streambank stabilization near the neighborhood around Portmanvilla Road. Photo by Fred McCormick

Money awarded to the Town of the Black Mountain by the N.C. Emergency Management Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund will advance the municipality’s Flat Creek Flood Mitigation Project. 

The $1.9 million grant will be utilized as a major infrastructure investment, with the goal of reducing risks and improving public safety in flood-prone neighborhoods around Portmanvilla Road, Davis Drive and Sixth and Seventh Streets. 

The planned project focuses on a neighborhood near Flat Creek, in an effort to mitigate “long-standing flooding caused by an undersized stormwater system,” which currently performs below a two-year level of service, according to a Feb. 19 press release announcing the grant. 

“Working from downstream to upstream, the project will complete engineering and construction activities across three targeted areas of Flat Creek to improve stormwater conveyance and stabilize the stream corridor,” the statement said. “Improvements will be designed to achieve at least a 50-year level of service, significantly reducing flood risk during major storm events.”

While that storm rating system assesses such storms at a likelihood of 2% in any year, at least two major storms have caused flooding and significant damage to nearby infrastructure since 2021. Sections of the Flat Creek Greenway remain washed away 17 months after Tropical Storm Helene, which came three years after Tropical Depression Fred flooded the area. 

Work on the project will include engineering and construction designed to enhance the conveyance of stormwater by replacing 10 undersized culverts with 15 larger tunnels. The improvements will include stabilizing 760 linear feet of streambanks, adjacent to the culverts. 

The initiative serves as an example of town investments needed to reduce flooding, according to assistant town manager and recovery and resilience officer Jessica Trotman. 

“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,” she said in the release. 

The grant marks the latest in a series of major resilience and recovery investments secured by the town in recent months, including $5 million for water system improvements, $2.45 million for disaster recovery, $1.7 million to address flood benching initiatives and $1 million to conduct major stormwater improvements along Sutton Avenue, according to the statement.