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State lawmakers have prioritized property over people in NC’s Helene recovery

Alex Campbell • April 24, 2025
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Seven months into the recovery effort following Hurricane Helene’s path of devastation in North Carolina last fall, we're now transitioning from the short-term recovery phase to the phase of long-term rebuilding. This moment provides a time to reflect on the progress that has been made and the ways in which the response by state and federal government has fallen short.  

Our analysis reveals a recovery effort that has prioritized the rebuilding of infrastructure at the expense of human well-being and need, and a need to hold state lawmakers accountable and demand that they do better. 

Information on the recovery to date comes primarily from the state’s WNC Recovery dashboard, the Office of State Budget and Management’s (OSBM) most recent quarterly report on the use of relief funds, and the NC Department of Transportation’s April 2025 Helene update.  

The damages to North Carolina are unprecedented in scale 

Hurricane Helene was the deadliest hurricane in the contiguous US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the costliest storm that has ever hit North Carolina. When it hit on Sept. 27, 2024, it caused catastrophic flooding, landslides, significant property and infrastructure damage, immense suffering, and a tragic loss of life.  

All told, OSBM estimates a total of $60 billion in damages in North Carolina alone. The three largest categories of damage are infrastructure ($17 billion), economy ($16 billion), and housing ($15 billion).  

Substantial progress in rebuilding infrastructure, but still significant work to do 

Transportation infrastructure damage (totaling $10.3 billion) makes up the majority of the infrastructure damage.  

  • Public roads: 90 percent of public roads damaged have been fully or partially reopened, but many still need substantial work. For instance, the Pigeon River Gorge section of Interstate 40 (I-40) connecting North Carolina and Tennessee remains limited to one lane in each direction. The NC Department of Transportation estimates that fully reconstructing I-40 in North Carolina will cost $1 billion and take two to three years.  
  • Public bridges: More than 60 percent of damaged or destroyed bridges still need to be repaired or replaced. While 313 have been repaired, another 524 remain. 

Other types of infrastructure include electrical, gas, water, sewer, waste, and telecommunications systems that service nearly 3 million residents and 500,000 businesses. Progress on this front is mixed.  

  • Telecommunications: Precise data is unavailable on electrical, cable, and internet infrastructure, but the private companies administering these services have made significant strides to restore services. However, defunct telecommunication infrastructure remains scattered across Western North Carolina — residents and local officials have reported cables tied around trees and leaning, unstable poles.   

Debris and hazardous waste remain a significant problem, particularly in the hardest hit counties. It impedes infrastructure repair, poses safety risks (including increased risk of wildfires), and also creates economic challenges by limiting commercial activity. 

  • Debris: OSBM estimates that Helene caused a total of 50 million cubic yards of debris – or about 15,000 Olympic Swimming Pools. Estimates for how much debris has been removed vary significantly, and it is unclear how much is “critical debris” impacting public rights of way or waterways. Based on available information, up to 19 million cubic yards may have been cleared — 10.5 million in 2024, and then 6.5 million in right of way debris and 2.3 million in waterway debris as of April 2025.

 

Economy still unstable in much of Western NC, with unemployed workers, small businesses in need of support 

The economic damage caused by Helene consists primarily of business and non-profit property damage ($3 billion) and economic loss from reduced business revenue ($12.4 billion). Unlike infrastructure damages, the vast majority of which will likely be covered through federal funding sources like FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and private insurance, OSBM estimates that federal grants and subsidized loans and private insurance are expected to cover less than $3 billion of these total damages.  

Business owners have repeatedly stated that given the economic uncertainty in the region, they need small business grants or forgivable loans. The response to these economic losses by the NC General Assembly has been abysmal.  

  • State support for small businesses: Across the four bills that include money for disaster recovery, a mere $50 million in state funds have been provided for (non-forgivable) bridge loans for small businesses, with $40 million of this funding disbursed to date. $50 million is less than 0.5 percent of the $12.4 billion in lost revenue. 
  • Private foundation support for small businesses: Dogwood Trust has partnered with the Governor’s Office to provide $55 million in small business grants, but the applications have far outstripped the funding available — $47 million in grants have been disbursed to just under 1,850 grantees, while the program has received more than 7,350 applications. Businesses are only eligible if their annual gross revenue is less than $2.5 million, which excludes many small businesses in the hospitality industry, with large revenue streams but small profit margins. 
  • Federal support for small businesses: The US Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved $203 million in disaster loans for North Carolina, but most of these SBA loans will likely go to households rather than small businesses.  

With small businesses being the foremost private job creators in rural communities, we see their neglect in the strain on the local labor market. 

Although we would expect the number of people looking for work to increase following a major disaster, it’s disturbing to see that the unemployment rate remains elevated at roughly the same level as December 2024 in some of those counties hit hardest by Hurricane Helene.

With the maximum payout period for State Unemployment Insurance (UI) being 20 weeks (Helene reached the state 29 weeks ago), and the Disaster Unemployment Assistance payout period closed as of March 29, unemployed Western North Carolinians are now in a precarious position. 

The loss of UI income is likely to ripple into the local economy, as less money is spent, business revenue tightens further, and more layoffs follow. A survey of businesses in disaster affected counties from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce is already showing this: 60 percent said that the lack of consumer demand is making it harder to recover. 

Evictions still a serious problem in Western NC; the state has provided meager relief 

Approximately 73,700 homes were damaged by Hurricane Helene, with 8,800 homes verified as having major damage or been destroyed. These estimated damages total $12.7 billion, with another $600 million in vehicle and personal property damage.  

  • Federal funds for housing: The primary source of funding for rebuilding homes is the federal Community Block Development Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program, which is focused on long-term recovery. North Carolina has been allocated $1.4 billion in CDBG-DR funds, most of which will be used for housing; however, it has yet to receive this money, so little home rebuilding has begun.  
  • State funds for housing: On March 19, HB 47 was signed into law. The bill appropriated $120 million in state funds to begin home reconstruction and repair while North Carolina awaits CDBG-DR money.  

In the meantime, the main housing challenge has been providing people with temporary shelter and rental assistance. With high unemployment rates and the state’s miserly UI benefit amounts, many Western North Carolinians have found themselves unable to pay rent. With nearly 1,700 eviction cases filed since Helene across disaster affected counties, the situation is nothing short of a crisis.  

  • Temporary shelter: FEMA is responsible for providing Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA), yet as of the end of 2024, they had received nearly 200,000 eligible applicants but assisted fewer than 12,500. The Governor issued an Executive Order on Jan. 7 to purchase 1,000 trailers in an effort to increase the supply of temporary shelter, but there have been issues getting them to the people that need them, and this is far from an ideal solution.  
  • Rental assistance: Both the state legislature and the federal government have neglected the need for rental assistance on a larger scale. The NC General Assembly has provided a mere $1 million in rental assistance, and as of the end of 2024, FEMA had provided only $1.8 million. To put these numbers into context — based on the average rental cost for a 2-bedroom home in Asheville — $2.8 million would support 925 households for two months. It’s now seven months since Helene hit the state, with evictions far over 925. By way of contrast, Grace Covenant Church has provided $4 million in rental assistance using private funds as of the beginning of February. In a single week, they wrote checks for a total of $184,000, with over 70 percent of these checks going to tenants in some phase of eviction. 

State lawmakers in the NC Senate have argued that because the $1 million appropriated for rental assistance in October has yet to be exhausted, there’s no need to appropriate more money for this purpose. But given the clear evidence of outstanding need, it’s more likely that funds are unspent because the state did nothing to advertise its rental assistance and limited the number of months that households can receive it — initially to one and then two months. We have every reason to believe that these funds would be fully used if the program was sufficiently advertised.  

Lesson: We cannot let the rebuilding of infrastructure come at the expense of human well-being 

While significant progress has been made to restore infrastructure thanks to our federal programs and state agencies, the human elements of disaster recovery have been mostly neglected: the need to ensure that all people have shelter, income, and their other basic needs met and are able to live in dignity. Although FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program helped many with Transitional Sheltering Assistance, even more were neglected and the NC General Assembly provided next to nothing by way of assistance. Rebuilding infrastructure is important and ought to be a major priority, but it should not come at the neglect of the very people whom the infrastructure exists to serve.  

It’s not too late for lawmakers to change course and fund those programs and services needed desperately by everyday North Carolinians recovering from disaster — rental assistance and housing stabilization programs, case management support for those in temporary housing, grants or forgivable loans for small businesses, more robust unemployment benefits that offer larger payouts and that extend for longer periods of time, and mental health services and trauma informed care.  

Although none of these things appear in the recent Senate budget proposal, many of these outstanding needs are addressed by the recently filed House Bill 863. State lawmakers ought to make good on their promise of a quick turnaround on the next disaster recovery package by amending the bill to include assistance for unemployed disaster victims and then passing it as soon as possible.  

With federal cuts on the horizon, layoffs of essential government workers at FEMA, HUD, and other government agencies continuing to mount, and the next hurricane season approaching rapidly, state lawmakers must also recognize the need to stop cutting taxes for corporations and the ultra-rich so that North Carolina can maintain revenue and ensure that we’re able to rebuild fully after Helene and future disasters.