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Six Months After Hurricane Helene

It has been six months since Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina. The State of North Carolina has just allocated an additional $524 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, and the National Hurricane Center issued its final Hurricane Helene report last week.

Photo by JD Designs on Unsplash

As of Friday, March 21, 146 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included 9 US highways (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday), 15 state highways (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday), and 122 state roads (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday).

Last Wednesday, March 19, NC Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, signed a bill that had finally passed the NC Legislature that will provide $524 million in hurricane relief in the western part of the state. The bill emphasizes home and private road repairs, agriculture, and infrastructure to aid businesses.

Stein had asked the Republican-controlled General Assembly for an additional $1.1 billion for Hurricane Helene recovery on top of the $1.1 billion the State of North Carolina has already spent or appropriated.

The Associated Press reported last Wednesday night: “Stein’s administration projects that disaster relief approved by Congress in December and other federal funding sources may ultimately provide more than $15 billion in Helene recovery funds to North Carolina. Stein is now seeking another $13 billion from Washington.”

About 4,600 households in western NC were still receiving temporary housing assistance as of a couple of weeks ago.

The WUNC public radio website (https://www.wunc.org) gives the following breakdown of the $524 million for western North Carolina Hurricane Helene recovery:

  • $200 million for crop loss programs and agricultural debris removal
  • $120 million for rebuilding and repairing homes
  • $100 million for repairing private roads and bridges
  • $55 million for small business infrastructure grants
  • $20 million for debris removal
  • $10 million for volunteers and nonprofits actively assisting in the disaster
  • $10 million for fire department grants
  •  $9 million for learning recovery in the Helene-affected counties 
  •  $4 million for travel and tourism marketing 

The bill also extends the state of emergency and increases the number of counties eligible for school calendar flexibility due to missed school days.

In addition to the $524 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, the legislature allocated $217 million for Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018) recovery on the coast.

The $9 million for a voluntary summer school program in districts that were closed for many weeks due to Hurricane Helene is less than Governor Stein requested.

Stein had requested money for two business grant programs to help companies that suffered significant losses, but the legislature omitted those programs from the final bill. Instead of Stein’s request, the legislature designated $55 million in the form of grants to local governments for sewer, utility, and sidewalk repairs which will indirectly benefit small businesses.

The dollar amount for the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina alone has been estimated to be $53.6 billion, so drops of relief continue to drip into the bucket.

The need is still great, but in the NC General Assembly the people who are still homeless or hanging on by a thread since the hurricane must compete for the millions of dollars our legislators want to give out in vouchers so children can go to private schools instead of our public schools. (Don’t get me started!)

The National Hurricane Center released its final report on Hurricane Helene on Friday. The full report can be found on the NOAA website: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092024_Helene.pdf .

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

A few highlights from the report as it pertains to the storm in western North Carolina:  106 deaths in NC were attributed directly or indirectly to the storm. Busick, NC in Yancey County got 30.78 inches of rain – the most recorded anywhere from the hurricane. Approximately 40 miles to the south (as the crow flies), a site in Transylvania County, NC recorded 29.98 inches. Ten counties in the state recorded more than 18 inches of rain, so you can see that a large part of the mountains in NC received incredible amounts.

Mt. Mitchell recorded sustained winds of 80 miles per hour and gusts as high as 106 miles per hour. The small town of Banner Elk recorded wind gusts of 101 miles per hour. The hurricane caused more than 2,000 landslides, most of which were in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Forest Service estimated 822,000 acres of damaged timberland, which resulted in $214 million in damages to North Carolina forests.

By the way, US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, announced at Monday’s meeting of the President’s Cabinet that she plans to “eliminate FEMA.” Apparently, there are no natural disasters in her home state of South Dakota. At the age of 53, she is fortunate if she’s never experienced one. She and Trump think states can handle disasters better than the nation. States don’t have the resources the US Government has… but maybe that’s just my opinion. We’ll see how this works out.

Until my next blog post

My planned topic for next Monday is the 298 words Trump wants federal agencies to limit or avoid. As you can imagine, this hit a nerve with me!

I hope you have a good book to read.

Hold your family close.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

25 thoughts on “Six Months After Hurricane Helene”

  1. Janet, your truthful blogs are so informative. I still pray for those who were/are still affected by the hurricane. It is sad that FEMA is in plans of being eliminated. Lord, help us. I hope you have a wonderful day.

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  2. Quite interesting Janet, and it seems progressing towards full recovery. We are still going through the same thing with the recovery effort after the Oct 29 storms in our area. There are still many people affected and help has not really gotten to all in need. I surely hope that the situation in the US settles down. I do not understand why this loathing for Europe! Well, although I do not have a good book to read, I do hold my family close and remember the people of Ukraine and western NC. All the best Janet.

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  4. Thank you, Tangie. Only a fellow blogger like yourself knows how time-consuming blogs like ours can be, so I especially appreciate your compliment. The way things have been going the last couple of months, I shouldn’t have been surprised that FEMA is on the chopping block but somehow I was. FEMA has its flaws, no doubt, but I can’t imagine how states can be expected to recover from hurricanes without some federal dollars. Time will tell. I hope you are having a beautiful day.

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  5. Slowly but surely, western NC will recover, although many things will never be like they were before. I’m sorry to know that the flooding disaster in Spain last October is not fully resolved, but I know from experience after Hurricane Hugo in 1987 that it takes years and some scars on the large old trees are still visible 38 years later. I don’t understand Trump’s loathing for Europe either! He is so thin-skinned, all I can think is that a European individual must have slighted or insulted him sometime in his 78 years on earth. He claims that “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the English language, but I think his favorite word is actually “revenge.” He is surely a miserable person. It must be exhausting to hold so much hate and fear in one’s heart. All the best from a sunny, mild, but very dry NC. The entire state is under an outdoor burn ban to reduce the possibility of wildfires like continue to burn out-of-control in the mountains 75 miles to our west.

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  6. Thank you Janet. Ursula con del Leyen, president of the European Commission has advised that all Europeans should have a survival kit to last 72 hours in case of war. This is crazy what is going on! In any event, Spain has always been neutral (somewhat), so I do not fear…

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  7. Yes, this is what I’m hearing from my blogger friends across Europe. This is absolutely chilling! War will come as a surprise to Americans because our intelligence leaders have demonstrated this week that they have faulty memories and an uncanny ability to lie to Congress. The Republicans think it’s a joke and Trump and his minions continue today to remind us of all the mistakes Joe Biden made. The White House spokesperson today called the Signal group chat about bombing Yemen “a hoax.” Nothing to see here! Meanwhile, our Vice President and National Security Advisor go to tour Greenland this week to “go to a dog race and see cultural sites.” I’m sorry for what Trump and his supporters and enablers are doing to Europe. It is unbelievable and unforgiveable.

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  10. Can I suggest a few words that should be banned?

    Trump
    Witch hunt
    Stolen
    Hoax
    Fake news
    Tariffs
    51st State

    But I’d like to think we’ll still be allowed to use:

    Orange
    Fascist
    Buffoon

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  11. Thank you for the North Carolina recovery status. You still have a long way to go. I hope the money holds out. (Don’t get me started on school vouchers and getting rid of FEMA!)

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  12. I love your list! Just wait until you see my post next Monday! If you haven’t seen the list of 298 words on the “limit or avoid” list for US Government agencies, you aren’t going to believe it. I’ll pique your interest with just three examples from the list: women, female, females. I’m not making this up! American women (oops! Perhaps I should say non-male-persons because the word “male” is acceptable. We’ll probably be wearing burkas by the end of the year. I just hope it doesn’t start before summer. It’s very hot and humid here in North Carolina.)

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  15. This is a very good and comprehensive post, Janet. I lived through so many hurricanes in Puerto Rico, so I understand what the people are going through. It’s a terrifying and painful experience, and things get much worse when the government takes its time to remediate the situation. Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria, partly due to the inept governors we’ve had on the island. I hope the people of western North Carolina don’t have to wait that long to return to how things were before the hurricane.

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  16. Thank you, Edward. The whole western NC area has been traumatized… and now some of the same people have been evacuated (and some have lost their homes) due to the wildfires burning as I write this.

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  19. Thank you, Laleh. I hope we can still be friends even though President Trump is treating Canada so badly. Please know that the American people do not support what he’s doing and saying. We love Canada and the people who live there.

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  21. I thought so, Laleh. I just had to make sure. Everything has been turned upside down and inside out in the US, and I’m just in shock. I know you’ve been through much worse with all that has taken place in Iran, and I am so sorry.

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