North Carolina’s Departments of Agriculture and Insurance are watching Tropical Storm Debby closely, and bracing for heavy rainfall across the state. The storm coming early in hurricane season could mean more devastation for farmers, as the end of season harvesting hasn’t started.
In Monday’s Council of State meeting, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said the forecast shows that the rain and potential for flooding extends into much of central North Carolina.
“This storm is different, it’s early,” he told the council. “Not a lot of harvest has taken place up to this point, so we’ve got growing crops that the water is going to affect. We appreciate the transportation waiver that will give us a little bit of a head start.”
The Council of State has concurred with the emergency declaration issued by Gov. Roy Cooper to provide for transportation waivers so that utility trucks, farmers, and businesses can move goods and crops out of Debby’s way without having to worry about government regulations that impose weight and size restrictions.
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told the council that everyone needs to be on heightened alert in the next few days.
“You can’t say enough times, please be aware of deep water and moving water,” said Causey. “It doesn’t take a lot of water to sweep your car off the road and, of course, the first thing we all need to do is make sure we don’t lose any lives during this time period.”
Debby is the fourth named story of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, but the first to pass over North Carolina. The recovery from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence in 2016 and 2018 still loom over the governor’s Office of Resilience and Recovery. Accusations of mismanagement, delayed reconstruction, and bureaucratic red tape are being investigated by the state legislature, as some families remained living in hotels for up to six years, waiting for reconstruction of their homes after Matthew and Florence.
Since those storms, the state government has pushed to re-build storm-damaged homes in the eastern part of the state to be elevated with more resilient roofs. In 2017, the state legislature passed the Fortified Roof Program grants into law, allowing for North Carolinians to apply for construction grants.
“We are one of the leaders in the nation in the fortified roof program,” said Causey. “We have almost 12,000 homes that have taken advantage of the grants the legislature started with the grant program in 2017. it started out as a $6000 grant and that’s not enough to replace a roof but it goes a long way and they’ve increased that to $10,000.”
Causey said that storms and reconstruction really impact North Carolina’s insurance rates, particularly in the coastal areas. In January, the North Carolina Rate Bureau (NCRB) requested a rate increase averaging 42.2% in homeowners’ insurance rates starting August 1. In that request, some areas of the coast would see a 99% increase. The request was rejected by the NC Department of Insurance and there is a court hearing on the rates set for October.
“As a state, if we’re going to address the rising homeowners insurance rates, we need to encourage all our builders and the legislature to continue to look at ways to make housing more resilient.”
Ahead of Debby’s downpours, Duke Energy and local officials are preparing. Sheriff Larry Pierce in Wayne County, near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, has already activated dive teams.
“They are just like every other county; very, very concerned about the forecast and hoping for the best,” said Causey.