U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, announced Friday that Bayou La Batre has won a $15.6 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to build as many as 120 furnished, affordable modular homes for hurricane victims.

"They have to be furnished because the vast majority of residents will be coming straight out of FEMA trailers to these homes," said Janey Galbraith, the city's grants consultant.

Bayou La Batre leaders initially discussed building the homes in partnership with Mobile's Mitchell Homes, but FEMA required that the city bid out the project competitively, Galbraith said.

The city will likely advertise for proposals in September, she said.

The project would construct homes in two neighborhoods, Safe Harbor Estates and Safe Harbor Landing, located on either side of Alabama 188 at the intersection with Shine Road.

Both sites lie outside the federally designated 100-year flood zone.

The project is intended in part to get Hurricane Katrina victims to move away from their old, flood-prone neighborhoods.

The Bayou lost a third of its population after Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, so city officials hope to regain tax base by attracting former and new residents. Before the storm, Bayou La Batre had about 2,300 residents.

The Bayou La Batre City Council awarded a $1.9 million contract last week to install infrastructure at Safe Harbor Landing on the east side of Alabama 188.

That $1.9 million is part of the

$37 million in HUD funds awarded to the city in June 2006, Galbraith said. But the infrastructure for Safe Harbor Estates will have to come out of the

$15.6 million awarded by FEMA, Galbraith said.