As Hurricane Erin leaves behind floodwaters along parts of the Outer Banks, several North Carolina communities have been reminded of the threat extreme weather poses and the need for adequate funding for recovery efforts caused by past storms.
Ahead of Hurricane Erin’s arrival last week, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein highlighted how the federal government has yet to provide adequate aid to the communities of western NC. Nearly a year since Hurricane Helene made landfall, the federal government has covered only 8% of Hurricane Helene’s damage, according to Gov. Stein.
“We’ve had a healthy working relationship with the federal government over these past 11 months since Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina,” stated Gov. Stein during last week’s press conference. “In terms of the extent of federal support, it has not met the moment.”
Gov. Stein noted that federal agencies have provided less than $5 billion in relief toward the roughly $60 billion in damages the state suffered from the powerful hurricane.
“The scale of these storms are massive — $60 billion in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene,” stated Gov. Stein. “Those kinds of resources don’t exist in western North Carolina to respond. Heck, our state two-year budget is $66 billion, so essentially we would have to forgo the entire two-year budget just to get western North Carolina back to where it was before.”
In the past few months, Gov. Stein has written to the Trump administration seeking funding for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. The governor has urged continued action at the state and federal levels, citing his $19 billion federal aid request that remains pending in Congress.
Earlier this month, Gov. Stein also wrote a letter requesting that the administration declare a major disaster declaration due to the severity of damage caused by Tropical Depression Chantal.
The letter states that the Tropical Depression left more than 100 roads impassable due to flooding, sinkholes, and severe structural damage in counties such as Alamance, Chatham, Orange, and Person. The torrential rain caused by Chantal forced many Orange County residents out of their homes and remains a huge financial burden for many.
On Wednesday, Orange County residents asked the city for help, as many are facing homelessness once disaster assistance runs out at the end of August.
“I’m gonna be homeless, pretty much because I haven’t found a place to go that I can afford,” stated Jessica Tickles during a press conference in Orange County. “I had to take out of work to find housing, so I’m like restarting back to work, and it’s like starting from zero.”
Currently, the Trump administration is reshaping how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will manage its response to disasters across the U.S. Due to cuts made by the Trump administration, states heavily impacted by extreme weather, including North Carolina, are bracing for less disaster relief.
“To not have FEMA means that now local governments will have to deal with disaster, and it’s always bigger than the revenues of the local government,” Sarah Wells Rolland, founder and owner of the Village Potters Clay Center in Asheville, told CNBC. “For the funding to be taken away, I think is a colossal disaster.”
