Evaluation now part of Helene recovery

It’s now about three weeks since Tropical Storm Helene left a trail of destruction throughout western North Carolina and the South Carolina Upstate.

I’m in an area that’s mostly back to normal. There is still one area that stood out. As I was headed to the grocery store, I noticed there was still one traffic light out on one of the main roads I normally take. This has been the same way for the past two weeks.

Again, I’m not in one of the hardest hit regions. It just strikes me as a sign that all might not be normal despite most normalcy returning.

We’re now in the part of the recovery process when it becomes clear what western North Carolina will look like moving forward. It also involves evaluating factors that could have prevented some of the destruction. This will likely take time.

In this Oct. 16, 2024 story from NC Newsline, it states that the state lost out on federal disaster prep money. This is something the office of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper agrees with and Republicans that have a supermajority in both houses of the General Assembly oppose.

In 2023, FEMA denied a $1.2 million request for a wastewater lift station in Murphy, roughly $6 million to build a flood-resistant park in Canton, and $10.9 million for water infrastructure upgrades in Beech Mountain — all of which could have improved flood resilience in western North Carolina. Flood mitigation projects worth a combined $8.3 million in Taylorsville and Lenoir were approved through the FEMA program.

“The General Assembly’s legislation that stops the update of building codes makes North Carolina less competitive for federal funds to strengthen the response of communities across the state to natural disasters like Hurricane Helene,” wrote Jordan Monaghan, a spokesperson for Gov. Roy Cooper. “Over the next few months as the General Assembly works to pass legislation to help with Hurricane Helene recovery, they should consider changing this law.”

NC Newsline

That’s false, according to state house Speaker Tim Moore, an attorney from Cleveland County, said.

During a news conference prior to the General Assembly’s vote last Wednesday on initial disaster relief to western North Carolina, Speaker Tim Moore denied that the legislature’s actions made western North Carolina towns more susceptible to flooding.

“That simply is not true. You can talk to folks who live in the mountains, I mean, you got buildings that were destroyed that had been there 60 years,” Moore said. “The regulatory reform that’s being looked at is not to make (construction) less safe, it’s to speed up the process and make sure that we get those done soon.”

He pointed to the urgency of repairs to I-40, other bridges and roadways, and water treatment systems in western North Carolina and said it would be a mistake to slow that work down with unnecessary regulations.

NC Newsline

But, there’s still the destruction of Asheville’s water system, the devastation near Black Mountain and other various spots. One example is the water plant that serves Mitchell County needing to be entirely rebuilt.

Plants elsewhere in the western part of the state were forced to shut down and sustained damage from the storm. The treatment plant that serviced all of Mitchell County “is gone,” State Senator Ralph Hise said at Wednesday’s news conference. “It does not exist and is unsalvageable.”

Rebuilding that plant will likely take four years, he added, leaving the county’s residents reliant on wells and shipments of clean water for the foreseeable future.

NC Newsline

Being without a water plant for years will certainly be a negative factor to those that have moved to the area to retire. But, housing is not affordable in many (if not all) parts of the North Carolina mountains. There are also plenty of residents that have lived there for generations and might just want to hang on to the land that’s been part of their family.

This Oct. 16, 2024 article from Politico quotes the mayor of Canton, N.C. in Haywood County. Canton has seen a previous flood and the loss of the paper mill that was a large employer.

Zeb Smathers, the mayor of Canton in western North Carolina, said he’s no longer comfortable persuading people and businesses to remain after heavy rainfall from Helene overflowed the banks of the Pigeon River just three years after a “once-in-a-lifetime” flood hit the town of 4,400. So Smathers is looking to federal programs to help residents and business owners who want to move out of the town.

“There was a western North Carolina that existed before this and there’s the one that comes after,” Smathers said in an interview. “I’m numb, but I experienced this three years ago — which allows us to ask some of the tougher questions.”

But Smathers admitted he didn’t expect many residents to take up the offer from the federal government. There’s not many other places nearby for people to go, he said, since Helene brought “apocalyptic” damage to all corners of western North Carolina, where housing affordability is a top concern. Many people simply want to hold on to their properties, many of which have been in their families for generations, he said.

Politico

In other Helene recovery related news:

This article from Route 50 states that renters typically get left behind in disaster recovery since rents normally increase after a natural disaster. They tend to stay that way, too.

It will be interesting to see how Tropical Storm Helene will impact housing affordability in western North Carolina.