Law enforcement agencies and others are receiving a bump in funding from federal homeland security grants.
FEMA is awarding Delaware nearly $8.8 million this year through post-911 security grant programs.
The dollars will be split among a litany of agencies working to protect the state from terrorism, natural disasters and other hazards.
Delaware Emergency Management Agency Director AJ Schall says much of the funding will go towards training programs.
“There’s going to be an active shooter-type scenario down in Sussex County, I belive, at the end of October. We’ll use some of the funds from the homeland security grant to support that," said Schall. "We’re doing an agricultural emergency tabletop, I believe, in early January 2019. We took part in a natural [disaster] exercise through FEMA this year to prepare for a hurricane.”
Schall adds DEMA has also identified cyber security, operational communications and mass care as gaps in state services requiring additional funding.
“Mass Care, so for example: how we’re going to help a number of displaced residents after any type of incident has been a gap that we’ve identified through a series of reports that we do every year,” said Schall.
The funds are split up into four grants funding homeland security, emergency management, port security and $200,000 heading to non-profit security for Bayhealth and the Jewish Federation of Delaware.
Schall says 8.8 million is a fair amount for these grants though they have declined slightly over the years following their inception after the attacks on September, 11.