- “I've got a community near the Virginia line that may be without power until March,” Tillis said. He added that the media may have moved on in their news cycle but things are far from getting back to normal.
US Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, testified before the US Senate Committee on Appropriations Wednesday at a hearing reviewing disaster funding needs.
Visibly moved with emotion, Tillis told his colleagues that he didn’t think he could get through his testimony without shedding a tear and would have his whole statement submitted.
He called Hurricane Helene a storm unlike any we’ve ever seen in our nation’s history.
“102 lives lost, 151 homes destroyed, 500,000 businesses affected in disaster declared areas, 5000 miles of roads,” he started. “This is North Carolina statistics, ladies and gentlemen. Five thousand miles of roads, including almost five miles of I-40 damaged and impassable for likely a couple of years, 1300 public bridges and culverts damaged, 163 water and sewer systems damaged 20,000 farms, disaster declared counties with $3.4 billion in damage.”
Tillis said hurricane victims ‘don’t need tears, they need action.’ He also spoke about how last week, US Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, blocked the Restoring an Economic Lifeline with Immediate Emergency Funding (Relief) Act that Tillis introduced that would appropriate $550 million to fund the SBA Disaster Loan Program Account, which would provide $2.475 billion in lending capacity projected to last until the end of 2024.
He went on to describe how Asheville just got drinkable water two days ago after the storm hit 54 days ago, and some communities won’t have it for a long time.
“I’ve got a community near the Virginia line that may be without power until March,” Tillis added.
He said the media may have moved on in their news cycle but things are far from getting back to normal.
“I intend to put another unanimous consent request together and maybe have another discussion with the junior senator from Kentucky, but I’m going to fight for the people who were affected, not only in North Carolina but many states that I have family, friends and that I have lived in,” Tillis said. “We’ve got to look at the Paycheck Protection Program, the Employee Tax Credits programs. This is a long-term recovery unlike we’ve ever seen, and we can either learn from it and start talking about creative ways now, or we can regret it later when some of my western cities are going to dry up.”
US Sen. John Ossoff, D-GA, also spoke about the devastation his state saw from Helene, especially farmers.
Also, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochiti Torres Small, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell all spoke before the committee.
Buttigieg talked about his time in Asheville about a month ago, where he saw entire lanes of I-40 demolished and collapsed into a gorge below washed out by heavy rainfall.
He said as of today, his department, through the Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief, or ER program, has delivered $187 million in funding to communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The funds have helped open US 276 near Caesar’s Head in Greenville County, South Carolina, and continue the ongoing work along I-26 and I-40 between North Carolina and Tennessee.
Buttigieg stressed that there is an urgent need for Congress to act to provide supplemental funding to support communities across the country grappling with disasters.
Guzman said she met with Biltmore Village restaurant owners in Asheville whose businesses remain closed while repairing physical damage after Hurricane Helene’s devastating flooding.
For Fiscal 2024, SBA has approved over 27,000 disaster loans totaling $1.7 billion in 160 disaster declarations across the 53 states and territories.
Todman had a shoutout to a man she met in Asheville by the name of ‘Mr. Wilson, who had a business.’
“He was all nervous and had a little piece of paper in his pocket,” she said. “He opened it up, and I don’t know how he did the research, but he did, and Mr. Wilson said, you know, Miss Todman, we need help. I need your disaster recovery funds not just for my family and my home but for my business and to bring my employees back. So let me say, Mr. Wilson, if you’re watching this one day, I am here for you, we are here for you and for every other person who’s been impacted by these disasters so you can help rebuild your communities.”
Criswell repeated much of the same testimony that she gave at yesterday’s congressional Transportation & Infrastructure subcommittee hearing, including Marn’i Washington, the former FEMA worker who was fired after a text chain was leaked that showed her instructing colleagues to ‘avoid’ houses that had Trump signs in their yards.
She did say that although FEMA received $20.2 billion in a continuing resolution, the Disaster Relief Fund has been depleted to less than $5 billion.
There are also over 100 open major disasters including Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“The surge in demand following recent hurricanes has been unprecedented,” Criswell said. “In just one month, we saw over 2.4 million households register for assistance, breaking records set during previous catastrophic storms. FEMA has already provided more than $7.8 billion in federal assistance for hurricanes Helene and Milton, and this amount includes $3 billion for individual assistance and $1.7 billion for public assistance, but these needs have rapidly exhausted our available funds, and without a supplemental, our ability to respond to new disasters could be jeopardized.”
A key theme throughout the hearing was that many requests from various agencies, like FEMA and HUD, are drastically falling behind. US Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, said the system can’t keep up.
A case in point is the Maui wildfires in Hawaii in August 2023.
US Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI said 4,000 housing units were destroyed in 90% of the area, impacting 12,000 people, with many multi-generational families.
He asked Toldman how many homes were rebuilt. She told him just one.
“One home rebuilt, 116 permits issued,” Schatz said. “Over the last about 15 months, 60% of the survivors who are housed but not in their own home have moved at least 3 times, and 20% of the survivors have moved five times. The problem is housing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency did a good job with the Army Corps in clearing the debris and making it safe to walk around. The soil is safe. The infrastructure is coming back online. The problem is housing.”
Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI, also said that he introduced legislation, much like his colleagues Rep. Dina Titus, D-NV, and Rep. Garret Graves, R-LA, in the House, who have a bill to create a universal application for federal disaster assistance, which would ease the process for disaster survivors.