Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria has the money it needs to finish a $300 million rebuild engineered to keep functioning through a major earthquake and tsunami, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency released $14 million in federal funding for the project this week. The release, which includes a $6 million state match, closes out the budget for the BuildCMH Expansion Project, a four-year capital improvement effort that broke ground in October 2024.
According to KOIN, FEMA released the funding for Clatsop County and Columbia Memorial Hospital on Monday. Hospital CEO Erik Thorsen said the grant completes the BuildCMH Expansion Project budget, the station reported. The hospital, which serves a rural, medically underserved stretch of the Oregon Coast, says roughly 80% of its care is already delivered on an outpatient basis, according to Columbia Memorial Hospital.
The money wasn’t always guaranteed. Per the same KOIN report, FEMA had cancelled the grant in April 2025 as part of a broader move to end the agency’s pre-disaster mitigation grant program, a decision that created a $20 million funding shortage for the project. A coalition of 20 states, including Oregon and the District of Columbia, sued over the cancellation and won, clearing the way for the funds to flow this week, the station reported.
What the New Wing Is Built to Survive
The expansion is designed specifically to withstand a major earthquake and tsunami, according to Columbia Memorial Hospital’s own project materials. The plan keeps all critical infrastructure — generators, water storage, IT components and the helipad — on the roof, above potential flood levels, so the facility can remain operational during an emergency. It also includes a tsunami-safe refuge area for caregivers, patients and community members, built as a vertical evacuation structure with emergency food and water supplies on hand.
Per the KOIN report, the project is meant to provide shelter for 1,900 people. The stakes are regional: a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and the tsunami that would follow are expected to have devastating impacts throughout Oregon, and low-lying coastal communities are particularly vulnerable, with Seaside and Cannon Beach among the most exposed communities in Clatsop County, KOIN reported.
The roughly 180,000 square feet of new construction, which also expands the hospital’s emergency department, was already under construction when the FEMA award was finalized, according to Columbia Memorial Hospital. The hospital lists Phase 1 completion for late 2027 and Phase 2 for late 2028.
Federal and State Funding
The funding package combines federal funding with a state match.
Construction crews were still on site working on the expansion as recently as September 10, the station noted. The legal fight over FEMA’s grant program reflects a wider debate about disaster-mitigation funding nationally. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which supports projects like evacuation shelters, floodwalls and seismic retrofits, was the subject of an April 2025 study by the National Institute of Building Sciences that found every dollar spent through the program avoids roughly $6 in future disaster costs, according to ENS Newswire.
With the federal award finalized, Columbia Memorial Hospital’s rebuild moves forward as one of the coast’s most visible bets on preparing for the region’s long-anticipated seismic threat. For a hospital serving a community with limited alternative access to acute care, the completed funding package means the difference between a project on hold and one on track for its 2027 target.
