Henderson County in western NC has spent millions on storm damage, but local leaders say they’re still waiting for federal Helene reimbursement from the Trump administration.
Henderson County is working to get reimbursed for the nearly $27 million that it’s still “in the hole” after spending $66 million on Tropical Storm Helene recovery, much of it on debris removal.
“Things have … not improved enough. This county is still, in my opinion, in a very bad place” in terms of reimbursement, Henderson County Board Chair Bill Lapsley said at an April 6 meeting held at the Bat Cave Baptist Church.
“We have no guarantee that the federal government, or the state government for that matter, is going to write a check to cover that ($27 million),” however, Lapsley said. “The taxpayers of Henderson County are on the hook.”
The county has received a net $10 million since November and almost $30 million total from FEMA so far, Henderson County Emergency Management Response and Recovery Director Santana-Pollard told the board.
The county has received nearly $39 million in donations, insurance proceeds, grants and reimbursements, she said.
“Our hope is that we’ll get fully reimbursed” for everything the county spent on the recovery effort, she told the Times-News April 8.
‘A very meticulous process’
FEMA announced an additional $26 million in funding for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program in Western North Carolina April 6, which will go toward buying out the owners of 18 damaged properties and demolishing them, the Asheville Citizen Times reported. But that money will go directly to owners of damaged properties and work to mitigate those properties, rather than to the county, Santana-Pollard said.
The 18 are on top of 24 properties already approved for buyouts, county Public Safety Director Jimmy Brissie told the board.
“It is a very meticulous process” to get those grant applications approved, he said.
There are 95 applications total in the county for that program, Santana-Pollard told the Times-News.
North Carolina started paying upfront for Henderson County’s debris removal in July, the Times-News reported. Prior to that, the county was paying out of pocket to be reimbursed later.
Debris removal isn’t as far along in the Hickory Nut Gorge as it is in other parts of the county, Brissie told the board.
“Debris work couldn’t take place in this area for months because there were no roads … to get equipment in and out,” he said.
And the state is waiting on approval from FEMA for many specific debris removal jobs.
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“It goes really fast once we get the approval to move and get contractors out here to remove debris. That’s the bottleneck that we’re facing right now,” Bob Barker, deputy director for recovery at North Carolina Emergency Management, told the board.
“We’re working with FEMA to get that alleviated,” he said, though that’s been complicated by the ongoing government shutdown, several people said.
‘The damage multiplies’
The county is still paying for things like trash pickup, since commercial trash haulers can’t or won’t access all the places where it’s needed, as well as the cost of stationing an EMS crew at the Gerton Fire Department to respond to calls in places otherwise only accessible through one-lane stretches, Santana-Pollard told the Times-News.
“Recovery is a marathon and in this case it’s an ultramarathon. We’re going to be doing this for a long time,” Santana-Pollard said.
As of March 25, more than a million cubic yards of debris had been removed in Henderson County. At the same time, the Building Services Department has issued 839 permits for repair or reconstruction related to Helene, she said.
FEMA also approved a six-month extension on direct temporary housing and rental assistance for WNC from March 28 to Sept. 30, she said.
Bat Cave resident Miriam Benavides said the recent completion of road repairs have had some unintended consequences.
“With (U.S.) 64 now open to the public, we’re seeing a massive influx of traffic returning to the area … large portions are still just dirt and gravel. Even on a good day, it’s easy for cars to kick up that gravel and exacerbate existing potholes,” she told the board during public comment.
“The more cars that drive along that stretch (of N.C. 9), the quicker the damage multiplies and the more repairs are set back,” she said.
She asked for more enforcement of restrictions on outside drivers.
Lynn Staton, owner of the Bat Cave Post Office building and founder of Bat Cave Disaster Relief, asked for more signage on the road to control speed.
Reporting by George Fabe Russell, Hendersonville Times-News / Hendersonville Times-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
