“We need more help.”
These words were from Gov. Josh Stein on Monday as he announced that he is requesting an additional $13.5 billion from the federal government, as the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene slamming into western North Carolina approaches next week.
Helene is estimated to have caused $60 billion in damage.
The announcement took place at a press conference at the Blue Ridge Community College Technology, Education, and Development Center in Flat Rock in Henderson County.
While he said he was appreciative of the help that has been received so far from both the General Assembly, which passed two appropriation bills in excess of $1 billion, and the feds, he also said the state has not received enough funding. The next stage of recovery will require a new commitment from Congress and for the administration to remember the people of western North Carolina, Stein said.
“So far, North Carolina has received or been awarded federal funding equivalent to about 9% of the total damage that Helene caused,” Stein, a Democrat, said. “States that were similarly devastated following Hurricanes Katrina, Maria, and Sandy saw 70% of their damages covered by federal funding. The average is typically between 40 and 50% of total damage in federal relief dollars.”
The governor said he will be heading to Washington, DC, on Wednesday to meet with officials to formally request the funding.
where’s the funding going?
Stein said roughly 74,000 homes were damaged by the storm, very few of which had flood insurance, and 96% of small businesses in the area reported impacts from Helene, with six out of seven not reaching their pre-Helene revenues. He noted that western North Carolina’s economy relies heavily on the strength of small businesses, including tourism.
While he thanked the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for awarding $1.4 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grants, he is requesting an additional $8 billion to help “get the job done” of rebuilding homes, helping small businesses, and repairing infrastructure right away without the hassle of cashflow problems with reimbursement programs.
Additionally, $400 million is being requested from the Small Business Administration (SBA) to offer more forgivable loans to North Carolina small businesses.
“Our small business initiative successfully awarded grants to 2,100 small businesses [$55 million], but the demand for those grants far exceeded the supply,” Stein said. “We want to build on that effort because when small businesses succeed, we all succeed.”
The governor is also requesting $2 billion in new FEMA funding from Congress through special Community Disaster Loans. After Hurricane Katrina, Congress created the loans that enabled local governments to continue running their cities, including paying police officers and picking up trash.
“Western North Carolina towns and cities were forced to spend money that they didn’t have to rescue people from disaster, and with so many people displaced and business activity diminished, there’s no such thing as a stable source of revenue for these local governments,” he said.
The final request is for $2 billion in new funding from Congress to restore and improve roads and bridges against future damage.
“Hurricane Helene damaged 5,000 miles of state-maintained roads as well as many private driveways and bridges,” Stein said. “I am incredibly proud of North Carolina DOT’s work to reopen more than 97% of state-maintained roads that were closed because of the storms. But we’re still waiting on reimbursements for much of the work that’s already been done, and it’s not a matter of simply doing quick repairs to get the roads reopened. We’ve got to build roads that will last.”
He cited that although I-40 has reopened and people use it to go to Tennessee and back daily, it was repaired quickly by using temporary measures and will need more than $1 billion to get back to full strength.
While these four areas — restoring homes, supporting small businesses, bolstering local governments, and building roads — make up most of the $13.5 billion request of Congress, the governor said the state is still waiting for the $6 billion that Congress appropriated last December with the American Relief Act.
“We’re seeking $6 billion in either allocated or competitive awards from previously appropriated funds, so in this budget request, I am once again calling on federal agencies to take action to allocate these funds and get them out the door to help the people of western North Carolina,” Stein said. “We’ve learned a great deal over this past year, and I am proud of the progress that we’ve made together, and we will keep fighting every day to get people the help that they need. Because the people of West North Carolina are not asking for a handout; they’re asking for a hand up to get back on their feet.”
The governor said there has been a slowdown in how funding is now being approved by the US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who now must approve every reimbursement over $100,000.
“She has approved a number of those funds [for NC], which is great news, but we don’t have access to that money yet [including the CDBG-DR funds] because they’ve created a third bureaucratic level of review called Defend the Spend, and it’s in this DOGE committee. And that can take another 30 to 90 days,” he said. “So, we’re getting approved by FEMA, and that used to be it, and once that happened, you used to be able to get the money and get it right back to these local governments. Now it needs to be approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security, approved by DOGE, and so all of this is slowing down the reimbursements, which means these local governments do not have cash flow for projects they’ve already done that were approved.”
In total, federal support to date amounts to approximately 9% of the total damage to western North Carolina.