RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina officials charged with leading recovery efforts in western North Carolina after — as well as parts of eastern North Carolina still struggling from previous hurricanes — told state lawmakers this week that they need more money. And they need it soon.
Western North Carolina will need billions more dollars from the federal and state government to accomplish its recovery goals, according to officials in Democratic Gov. Josh Stein's administration at a Wednesday legislative meeting. The region saw historic flooding from Helene last year, which resulted in .
A day later, the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency called on the legislature to provide $217 million as a final request to finish construction on more than 1,100 eastern North Carolina homes devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. NCORR has been plagued with financial problems — namely a reported budget shortfall last year — which has fueled .
For Helene's recovery, the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina advisor Jonathan Krebs outlined a funding gap of about $10 billion between money North Carolina requested from the federal government and what the state has received. Stein's administration is requesting that additional money for western North Carolina be included in any future funding bill to address the .
To address some lawmakers' critiques of how recovery process have been handled so far, Krebs urged the legislature to appropriate more state funds toward the rebuilding efforts. Krebs said the recovery office is largely reliant on receiving reimbursements from the federal government, but having more state funds at their disposal would allow the office to work outside of that system. He said the office also anticipates further delays from the federal government in funding.
“We don't want to bog this down with thick layers of bureaucracy, we want to be able to move nimbly,” office director Matt Calabria said.
The office described four critical needs in western North Carolina: debris removal, housing recovery, economic revitalization for impacted towns and repairs for roads and bridges. GROW NC's goal is to largely complete housing projects within four years, Krebs said, but further repairs on roads and bridges could take about a decade.
Lawmakers frequently drew a contrast between the ongoing recovery plan for western North Carolina with NCORR's work in the east for nearly a decade. GOP legislators have vowed that western North Carolina's recovery will be run more effectively than in eastern North Carolina, which Republicans have repeatedly described as slow and inefficient.
"We still have families across the state waiting for a home. This is unacceptable," Columbus County Rep. Brenden Jones said during Thursday's hearing.
NCORR leaders — such as former chief operating officer Laura Hogshead, who in November — have previously attributed the office's financial issues to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising infrastructure costs. But during Thursday's hearing, NCORR leader Pryor Gibson acknowledged “the mistakes” in the office's past management of housing recovery.
Gibson detailed NCORR's ongoing struggles with retaining a reliable base of contractors due to a lack of funds. Gibson called the situation a “double jeopardy” that could only be solved by “dependable money” rather than piecemeal funding from the legislature.
“If we don't have projects in the pipe, our contractors will leave. They've said it out loud," Gibson said. "And if they leave, honestly, with eastern recovery, we will not have the ability to put it back together.”
A little more than half of the 1,179 remaining homes are under construction, while the other half are awaiting construction, according to the recovery office. Gibson estimated the remaining homes' construction could be completed by the end of 2025 if the office received adequate funding.
Makiya Seminera, The Associated Press
