The federal agency FEMA is known to many as the disaster relief program that funds recovery efforts after a storm, but it's also funded several projects that help communities prepare for and mitigate the impacts of flooding from storms.

The Trump administration is currently working to dismantle FEMA entirely.

And in the process, one New Jersey shore town has just lost a grant to prevent flooding off its main highway, Route 36.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has the story.

New Jersey got another reminder this week of how quickly flash floods can strike.

It dredged up bad memories for towns like Highlands on the coast where torrential rains rose rapidly eight years ago, blew through storm drains and inundated the town.

Flash floods often swamp Route 36 as Mayor Carolyn Bion.

Oftentimes it completely closes state highway 36 which is an evacuation route.

So, it's dangerous.

People would be trapped in their homes with no way out and their cars would be, you know, the water over the uh the dashboard.

To keep its downtown dry and its residents safe, Highlands applied for a special $13 million FEMA flood resilience grant to renovate Kabushon Field with an underground detention basin to store flood waters and a pumping station to clear the grounds.

It won all preliminary permits.

But in April, FEMA tanked the entire program, leaving Bruion, to use a British term, gutted absolutely gutted.

It was uh we were so excited to finally fix this this centurylong issue and uh to have it just pulled out from under us is uh is very trying.

The president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been.

It needs to be redeployed in a new way.

As Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome explained on Meet the Press, the new administration shifting FEMA's focus.

She's actually promised to eliminate the agency.

A FEMA spokesman called its flood protection grants wasteful and ineffective.

More concerned with climate change than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.

Any FEMA contract over $100,000 now requires Gnome's personal sign off.

And I can't think of a worse idea to do right now on the heels of a major storm in our state.

New Jersey's Attorney General Matt Plackin this week joined a coalition of 20 states to sue the Trump administration over its decision to shut down FEMA's $4.5 billion building resilient infrastructure and communities grant program, the one to which Highlands had applied.

The president in this country has broad powers, but he's not a king.

he does not have the ability or the legal right to withhold funds that Congress in a bipartisan way came together and said these funds need to be spent to do certain things.

In this case, these funds need to be spent to protect us from floods, natural disasters, wildfires.

A new poll shows a majority of Americans don't want FEMA cut back.

In fact, 36% want it expanded and 30% want it kept the same compared to folks who'd cut or eliminate the agency.

And 59% strongly or somewhat oppose abolishing FEMA versus 27% who'd strongly or somewhat support its demise.

We believe we should be very concerned about what's going on with FEMA at the federal level.

Amanda Deva Reneer co-founded New Jerseys organizing project after Superstorm Sandy.

She'd love to see FEMA reformed so that the problem plagued agency could respond faster with fewer denials and better survivor support.

But following Monday's storm as New Jersey's Office of Emergency Management fielded inspectors statewide to see whether flood damage is eligible for federal aid, DevCa Reneer warned, "If that doesn't reach the level of federally declared disasters, we have nothing to support those people in the state of New Jersey."

And it's entirely possible that we could make our own individual assistance program and so that storm survivors could apply for that while we are struggling to reform FEMA and make it work for us.

The Murphy administration had no comment on creating a new New Jersey program, but noted the success of our state's emergency response and recovery efforts has been made possible through the strong and sustained support of our federal partners at FEMA.

Simply put, New Jersey would not be as ready or as resilient today without FEMA's ongoing partnership.

Meanwhile, in Highlands, we're feisty here in Highlands.

We can um we we find ways of doing things where we've you have to come become used to it because until we have a fix, you always have to have a plan.

She says they'll look for other funding sources that don't rely on federal approval.

I'm Brenda Flanigan, NJ Spotlight News.