A year after Hurricane Helene, communities still wait for federal reimbursements : NPR
A year after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of western North Carolina, communities are impatient that FEMA funds reimburse recovery expenses, but it is not clear when and if this money will come.
Ailsa Chang, host:
When Hurricane Helene swept away the North Carolina, it left more than a hundred dead and certain communities destroyed. Some of these rural communities are still working to rebuild a year later, pending federal support. This includes more than a billion dollars for road repairs, which the Ministry of Transport announced this week. Gerard Albert III of Blue Ridge Radio has more.
Gerard Albert III, Byline: Sherry Murphy and Suzette Dupuis have lived on the same rural mountain road for over 20 years. But the pair only met a few months, after trying to undergo the damage that Hurricane Helene left on their mountain.
Unidentified person # 1: It took part of my courtyard. I had water coming to the house where the roof – where the wind became so high, it loosen my box and the water entered my roof.
Albert: The volunteers helped rebuild his roof and landing. Now the problem is the road. It is the only road in the mountains for her and her hundreds of neighbors.
Unidentified person 1: We always have the roads to have to repair. The stream should be cleaned because there is asphalt.
Albert: A year after the storm, the roads of the bat community of bat is a winding series of traffic on a track, large construction equipment and gravel that filled with asphalt. Every Wednesday, Murphy and Dupuis sail on damaged roads to bring meals home to the state entrepreneurs who work to repair them.
Unidentified person # 2: OK, let’s go, Hon.
Unidentified person # 3: Thank you very much.
Unidentified person n ° 2: dig (pH).
Unidentified person # 1: Have a great day.
Unidentified person # 2: Have a great day.
Unidentified person # 3: You too.
Nobody unidentified # 1: There is nothing better than seeing the smile on the face of these guys and knowing that we are going to be here until the end.
Albert: And this end is still far away. The storm forced the closures and damaged more than 5,000 miles of roads in the west of the North Carolina. Governor Josh Stein fears that they have no money to repair them all.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Josh Stein: We are still waiting for reimbursements for a large part of the work that has already been done.
Albert: Pending money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay the $ 5 billion in road repair. So far, FEMA has paid only $ 100 million for roads.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Stein: The North of the West Carolina did not receive near what it needs, or our fair share.
Albert: FEMA generally covers about half of the damage caused by storms of this magnitude. The agency has so far paid around 10% to North Carolina for its costs. The agency has not yet answered questions about how it intends to cover. In a press release, the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, said: “We are just beginning.” Noem says that the money that has been delivered so far is an example of a quotation, “rationalized fema, first in America, which cuts administrative formalities and provides results”.
Meanwhile, communities pay from their pocket and hope for federal reimbursements. Henderson County, for example, spent $ 20 million in compensation debris. This represents 10% of their annual budget. Governor Stein says it is not a unique problem.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Stein: The cities and cities of Carolina in the North of the West were forced to spend money that they did not have to save people from a disaster.
Albert: And, he says, with so many displaced people and damaged companies, local governments simply cannot count on a stable source of tax revenue to help reconstruction.
For NPR News, I am Gerard Albert III.
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