Episode 90: WNC Recovery Communication
In mid February, the League and its longtime friends at the N.C. Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) and western North Carolina region Councils of Governments held a second, large convening of governments -- local, state and federal -- in storm-hit Asheville to go over the latest in the post-Helene recovery work for western North Carolina, demonstrating again the power of same-page communication in a shared comeback that ultimately involves the entire state. The multimedia teams from the League and NCACC captured the full day's speakers and panels on video (view that playlist). The League assembled highlights for a digestible Municipal Equation episode here.
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Transcript
From the North Carolina League of Municipalities, this is Municipal Equation, a podcast about cities and towns. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Municipal Equation, the podcast about cities and towns from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. My name is Ben Brown. I work with the League in Raleigh, North Carolina. We're online at nclm.0rg, representing more than 540 municipalities of all sizes and geographies across the state from the Atlantic Coast and over the plains to the mountains. And the mountains are where we're going to land once again for this episode. We're gonna keep focused there and check-in on some of the recent conversation and updates as they relate to hurricane Helene, which as an event, hurricane Helene hitting North Carolina in the 2024. As I speak now, that was a few months ago already, and it's amazing how time flies. But sticking with that theme and the passage of time, we're still very, very much in the conversation of how to recover from that event. This record setting destruction is still part of daily life there in the mountains of North Carolina
even if we are seeing less of it in the mainstream news. You notice we're not in the news as much as we used to be. The cameras are kind of going away and recovering over thing other things going on.
So that was Mark Anthony Middleton of the Durham, North Carolina City Council and president of the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Durham, of course, is not a mountain town, but this issue from day one has been approached, as a statewide issue. So that clip we played right there of president Middleton, I'll get to the occasion in just a second, but quick review. Helene, the massive storm that devastated so much of North Carolina in the mountains, the beautiful communities in that region, Asheville, Canton, Waynesville, Swannanoa, lots and lots more. Community so hard hit, homes destroyed, and lives lost as well. A little bit ago, we did an episode on what the recovery plan was looking like about a month out from the storm. And if you'll recall, the league and its very long time friends at the NC Association of County Commissioners and other partners put it on a big convening in Morganton. Well, we just did another one of these big convenings again with the NCACC and other partners. This was in February 2025. This time fully in the mountains in Asheville is where we helped this convening, like, directly where Helene brought so much devastation and flooding and other effects from the storm just just a few months prior. Got everyone back in a conference room and spent the day exchanging information about the recovery and what's available for it, getting on the same page. And that's where we got the clip we displayed of president Middleton emphasizing that this issue is still very much alive and requiring all kinds of people to work together to get through it. By the way, I recorded this entire event that I'm talking about. This was February 11 in Asheville, and I will put that link, the the video playlist link in the description with this episode. This episode is gonna pull out some highlights from that day long event to keep a marker on the tones we're setting and the questions we're asking as we figure out all the best ways to partner together and work smoothly together to recover from this unprecedented event. Governments and agencies and other sectors. That also means opportunity. Here is Tee Davis, a Warren County Commissioner and president of the NC Association of County Commissioners.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are here for a reason. The reason is they have had we have had a natural disaster. And relationships create opportunities. And many a time as elected officials, we don't get the pat on the back. We don't get the handshake. We don't get to think. However, the relationship that we create here today creates opportunities for people that we never even get to meet
other than know us, and we're here to do the work. Zeb Smathers is the mayor of Canton, North Carolina, another town that saw so much flooding, he set the tone for the panelists
and the guest speakers on the day. We get lost in the political back and forth. We get lost in the numbers and the ups and downs. But how great is it to still live in a region and a state when you see those blue lots, you see those red lots, you see that camo, you hear those helicopters. The good guys and girls are on their way. We still all of us wait. I my my son Stone, soon to be five years old. Even now, when he sees those lots and those people respond, the smiles on their faces. And what we have seen time and time again, east to west, is the people in our emergency management services across the board run into danger. And as long as we have the character and tenacity and grit of people in this state like that time and time again, the days are long. The challenges are great,
but we're going to make it. So we've chained together some highlights from the day. You can watch the full playlist, again, linked in the description. And many of you might have already received it from one of our newsletters or emails. Keep in mind, the the info here is as current as the moment the person said it, which was February 11 at the convening in Asheville. Lots in motion in terms of numbers and resources and contacts and where we all fit together and how. Don Campbell is the chief of staff at NC Emergency Management, a state government agency.
The first time I had the opportunity to be in front of this group was in November, and we still very much were in the response phase in many of your communities. We were still working through water shortages and water challenges and power challenges and being able to receive and get access into all of the parts of the community. We still have a long ways to go, but we have made significant progress since that time we first met in November. Campbell with NC Emergency Management, he mentioned a number of executive orders that governor Josh Stein signed after the storm. The first of which was to boost temporary housing. By executive order number one by governor Stein in our North our travel trailer program to be able to fill in the gaps. There are many FEMA programs. There are amazing nonprofits in Western North Carolina that are providing travel trailers and mobile housing units and a thousand resources out there, but that is still not meeting the needs of every one of our survivors that needs to be. So we have partnered with FEMA using their non congregate sheltering framework, and we have a travel trailer program in North Carolina to be able to fill the gap where FEMA may not be able to or the nonprofits may not be able to. I think it's important to note, housing is a partnership between the state and the federal government. And as we transition to longer term housing initiatives that will be coordinated by Commerce and Grow NC, we look forward to continuing that partnership to make sure that we get the right resources where they need in your communities for housing. Moving over to another fun topic of debris management. We know there's a lot of conversations about debris management, and that has been one of our bigger challenges from the complexity of the debris mission here in North Carolina. As we've talked with our colleagues in Virginia and Georgia and South Carolina and Florida, we very quickly recognize that our debris contractors are doing an amazing job in terrain that they do not have equipment that was built to work in. And many of them are taking the additional steps and sending their trucks off to be retrofitted to get into our waterways, to get up and down the hills. We are continuing to make progress in the debris management space knowing that it is an exceptionally complex process overall. In the meantime, we've continued to work with FEMA on a number of creative solutions, where they have the legal authority to do so. And so a few important estimates that I think are important to share. Over 5,700 individual awards have been given to already repair private roads and bridges in Western North Carolina for a total of 12, $15,200,000 already. Those are grants that have gone to disaster survivors to do repairs on their own roads and bridges where they have the capability and the capacity we do so. And so we have made some progress in that area, but I also recognize commuting through each of your communities or driving through each one of your communities, there are many needs still that are existing. So governor Josh Stein in January announced members of his newly established governor's recovery office for Western North
Carolina or Grow NC. And they included Matt Calabria as director of the office, along with Emily Gange as chief deputy director, joined by Stephanie Maguera. She's the deputy secretary for the State Division of Community Revitalization. And Holly Jones, the governor's Western North Carolina recovery adviser. They and more are part of Grow NC, but the ones I just mentioned joined us in Asheville for the convening to talk about what's been happening. Here's Calabria to set it up. And in virtually every meeting of the governor's office, this is the first topic. In every meeting of the cabinet,
every week, this is the first topic, and it's the plurality of the time, that we spend together. So this is very, visible to the governor. It's very important to the governor. Through just a few slides, the first, being to start with, much of what you already know, which is the devastation suffered in Western North Carolina. Obviously, most importantly, we lost 105, North Carolinians to the storm. But in addition to that, we've seen 74,000 homes damaged, 5,000 miles of state maintained roads, impacted, and so on. You all know because you all see the tremendous, damage and destruction wrought by the storm. And our office of state budget management has estimated that the total damages, have, added up to about $60,000,000,000 in damage. And so we know that we can't make everyone whole, but our job is to do the best that we can to help folks rebuild their homes, rebuild infrastructure, rebuild the economy, and do everything that we can to put, Western North Carolina, back on its feet and help it, in the future as much as we possibly can. In the conversations that we've had internally with legislators, with stakeholders, and others, we don't wanna overlook the importance of the private sector and the importance of philanthropy in this overall recovery process. Obviously, we're gonna rely on federal funds. Obviously, we're gonna rely on state funds for many things. But it is so important that we partner with organizations like the Dogwood Health Trust, with organizations like Baptist on Mission and so many others who are doing amazing work in our community. And so we are building out an apparatus within Grow NC in partnership with a number of organizations, to ensure that we put our best forward in that regard. I just spoke with some folks yesterday, and I said, look, we have needs, we have doers, and we have funders. And we need to identify ways to work across all of those three bands, to make sure that we are maximizing people's interests and willingness, and funds to make sure that our our recovery is as swift and robust as as it possibly can be. So I wanted to let you all know that that is, being built out as well. And lastly, just a note about, the FEMA funds that were alluded to earlier. There are so many different streams of funds, and they all have different requirements. But with respect to public assistance, just a, announcement, based on some conversations that we had yesterday. You know, there FEMA funds that go to local governments to help support the rebuilding effort of government buildings, of a lot of public infrastructure. And for at least some of those streams of funds, we received information last night, from our conversations with FEMA indicating that they have approved accelerated disbursements of many of those funds. So, you have to qualify. You have to go there's there's a process, as you might imagine. But what's important about that is we know that local governments are having to float a lot of money, to deal with immediate needs only to get reimbursed later. What this does, is, once once a local government qualifies, it means that instead of it taking months for FEMA to reimburse you, it should take about two or three weeks. And so we know when we're talking about revenue replacement needs and budgetary needs, this is a huge advancement for your ability not to have so much money going out the door. You can get reimbursed, relatively quickly, for the expenses that you're incurring. And so that's, these folks up here, I don't even think knew that yet. So, it's hot off the presses, but it is a huge advance,
in, what we're doing. And here's Emily Gange, the chief deputy director for Grow NC.
You're in a position to advocate to your congressional, representatives and to the state legislature. As I as we showed you on these slides, we don't yet have all the capital that we need for a full recovery in Western North Carolina, And so we really need the state legislature and the United States Congress to appropriate more funds for the recovery effort, and you can help us in
in persuading them to do so. A disaster like this in this region produces all kinds of ripple effects, some of which can be pretty urgent. Here's a question from the audience about wildfire risk. In Mitchell County, we have
the most timber down of any county in the Helene Path, but all the counties have that. And Mitchell County, a critical need we'd like to see, targeted is wildfire mitigation and grants to, bring that forward. So just wanted to put that on your radar. Appreciate all you're doing.
Yes, yeah, and thank you for flagging that. I was actually on the phone at ten last night with Senator Corbin identifying that because we've heard that from a lot of, local governments. I will note that the Governor's proposed budget, the $1,070,000,000 budget that he proposed to for immediate needs, to the General Assembly, included a number of line items related to, wildfire mitigation and timber collection. I had at the cabinet meeting yesterday, I had a a conversation with some folks about, work release even to get, you know, additional folks out there to help us with this. So it is a top priority, but I would certainly encourage you all to, emphasize the importance of that funding in the very near term to legislators to the extent that you're comfortable doing so. But I really appreciate you highlighting that. Onto the numbers and happenings at the federal level and FEMA,
this is Brett Howard. I'm the federal coordinating officer. Every all the 1,326 men and women that I have here work work for me and for you. I work for you. I'm responsible if somebody asked me, what's federal coordinating officer do? I'm responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen on a disaster, and that's a lot. Much is given. Much is required. My pledge to you is we will be as transparent. I wanna work with you to let you know what my shortfalls are, what I can and cannot do, and you tell me where I'm going wrong. Tell me what I don't know. I can fix what I don't know, but I can't fix what I do not know. So that's why our relationship, our, our working relationship needs to be very, very tight with the with the men and women I've got in each one of your counties and cities. I need to know because I can fix it. I can turn it around. So, anyway, get into numbers. Get into the numbers. Substantial effort. We're right now over 154,000 families have received, federal assistance. The, everybody knows about the TSA program, transitional sheltering. There's still 2,000 families in transitional sheltering. And that the transition transitional sheltering assistance program, the period ends in May. Right? That's when the program sort goes away. But as long as we have families that need to be sheltered, it will keep getting extended. It's just you don't get a an infinity you don't get a program that goes on forever. There's there's end dates, and right now has been extended out to May. If there's still families that we need to shelter, it will keep being extended maybe thirty, sixty days at a time, but you're not gonna see it go for for years. So we're gonna take care of survivors. We're gonna take care of those that are eligible to be in transitional sheltering that meet our requirements. Partnering with the state, we are sending teams to every one of these hotels. But I do wanna leave you with this thought. I do wanna talk about this, and we've all talked about and I've heard today about preparedness. And this is an example where we all need to work together, and we've got to rethink how we prepare for disasters. We've got to start taking our preparedness to the next level. Hey. We need to do all this. Well, what if this really does happen? Do we ever exercise it really does happen? And so and that's where we need to do a better job as FEMA. It's not I'm not putting this on you. I'm not giving you this burden to bear. But think about it. When you start looking at how you rebuild, how you mitigate, how you want your cities to look, many of you have a clean slate. Many of you, community leaders in here, you have a clean slate to build on. And so those plans that you got that for the mayors in the room, you got elected on a vision for your city. You may have an opportunity to enact the entire vision today based on this disaster. Pull it out. Dust it off. Handing it over to Jim McPherson,
disaster recovery coordinator with FEMA. We're hearing loud and clear about this wildfire threat. The US Forest Service has presented a package. They have $20,000,000 of something they're doing with the national forest. They want to work with the state and the state forest service here to see what they can do to to get ahead of the issue and to make, you know, greater, greater awareness. Because we understand what happened in 2016 and the small wildfires you've already had. We already know that the Helene trees are drier than what people thought, and it already is a threat. So we're we're reading that. We're hearing that, and it's it's just gonna be like the private roads and bridges. Not one entity is gonna fix this. It's gotta be a team effort and the feds, the states and the locals. FEMA community assistance. People don't often understand what they can provide, but everybody should stop by there because they can help you write the recovery plans. At the lowest level, that's where we have the biggest problem. You don't have that capacity at the city level to deal with these recovery plans. We have already paid for contractors who are standing by to do it, if that's what you want. But again, it's all about, you know, what your vision sessions are, what you want to do with peer to peer. And lastly, we even have the national coordinator for the national, Department of Health and Human Services. They're also here to see what you can do with the mental and behavioral health and the Department of Education. They're over here too. So the idea is we really want to get outcomes and impacts. The first time we wanted to hear your problems, now we heard them, now we need to focus on solutions. So some of the things that are going on, as you know, with HUD, the 1,600,000,000 community development block grant, that's important. 225,000,000 is gonna be going to Asheville. We have a full time person working with the City of Asheville. We have a contractor there. Because you only have a hundred and eighty days to get that HUD plan in. It has to be approved. We understand that could be a burden. And what happens when you get all that money? How do you translate it down to Main Street? But it's not our vision. It's your vision. It's what you want. How can we help you get there? The US Forest Service, again, they've really stepped up in this disaster more than I've ever seen anyone else. They've already have 200 miles of trails that are open. Department of Education, they're working on the school systems. They have, dollars 6,000,000 loans, grants out. And the Army Corps, they're really about these water systems. They have engineers that can help you in thinking about how you're going forward. So the bottom line, we're we're really glad to be here. We we understand the businesses don't want loans. They need grants. We wanna see what we can do to help you with that.
Here's Jeff Polley. He's with the cash flow loan program at the state treasurer's office describing another available resource, a loan. So
one of my first calls, and I wanna thank him, is when I became on board was Don Campbell, to try to help us figure out how we're gonna do this. Together, Don and I and others figured that February 14, would be a date that, everyone can get, everyone, quote, can get their, their project worksheets in, so we can do something to base this, program off of. The program is a $100,000,000 of, cash flow loan for disaster relief services. It is not for revenue recovery. I'm sorry. It is a loan. I'm sorry. It's not a grant. I believe it's a loan, so we do not, interrupt the flow of FEMA FEMA monies. So what do you need to do to get your, loans? The loans, you will have to have a governing body resolution approving, that you are taking a loan. That's just kind of a state law thing. You, a city manager or a county manager cannot just sign off on a loan without, governing approval. Attached to the loan agreement will be a promissory note with the amount that you get. So you'll have a loan agreement and a promissory note. Finally, there will be a wire form attached that should be filled out by the local government so we can then wire you your monies. So the key thing that I want you to know is, we plan on getting a memo out in the next couple of days outlining those steps, But the sooner you have a board meeting, the sooner you can get your money.
And back to Brett Howard with FEMA, this time on the importance of communicating and working together and discussing what needs to happen to make way for resources and activity.
We have to meet your standards. The fire marshal waived some of those, gave us expedited after well, that's right after Christmas. Man, that sped it up a lot. That sped things up a lot, because we don't come in and take over. We don't we have to abide by your laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances. And, if you're willing to waive those, thank you. If you're not, we gotta do it, how you want us to do it. Make sure that they're safe, and and we'd never wanna cut corners. Mayor Smathers of Canton. The mountain is steep.
The challenges are great, and there are gonna be days that test us where it's easier to fall back and go somewhere else. But for some reason, we have the audacity to believe just like our forefathers and foremothers that the climb is worth it. The peak is worth seeing and that we can make this place better than we found it. It's rough. The words we keep using in Haywood County of our people and the same ones at y'all's communities are the grit and grace. Grit and grace. All this information is hard. There's challenges. There's red tape. There's excuses. There's ups. There's downs. There's checks. We gotta keep going because we have to keep climbing those mountains. President Mark Anthony Middleton. I love
waking up in the center of our state. There's a question I ask myself each year. Mountain or the beach? Living in the center of the state. And and, it's a blessing to be able to do that. And as I said earlier, you know, your neighbors are everywhere and being able to take advantage of the beauty of our mountains or the beauty of our beaches, is something we don't take for granted. So when we go back, this isn't just an academic exercise for of the association. There's not a day that we don't wake up, and think about our neighbors out here and think about what's going on as we live our lives every day and we enjoy the blessings that are ours. Again, we've got the full playlist with everything the guest speakers and panelists said during this convening in Nashville, a packed room,
local, state, federal, staff, and elected officials, all kinds of resources in the room, FEMA, the corps of engineers. There was a lot of talk about housing. All that's in the video playlist, which there's a chance you've already gotten a link to and maybe in one of our mailings, but it it's on our Vimeo page and linked down in the description with this episode. It'll also go out in the next Need to Know newsletter. That's where we what we put that together at the end of each month, and we send out the link to the podcast, which is probably how a lot of you are finding this episode, Municipal Equation. This episode comes as all kinds of things are in motion. Don't forget. So look at our publications like the League Bulletin, the League Letter, for more updates on what's happening with the statewide recovery effort, very much statewide. We're very much on it. Our bulletin this past Friday had updates about state legislation for recovery and things happening at the state commerce department, which is beginning to hold public hearings to develop a plan for dispersing $1,400,000,000 in federal relief, of which 225,000,000 is going to Asheville. Keep your eyes peeled for updates going around. I'd like to thank you for joining us on another episode of Municipal Equation. This is a podcast we've done at the League of Municipalities since 2016. You can find all the back episodes on your preferred podcast app. You might be watching a video version of this podcast right now. We're doing that now as well. The video and audio versions are gonna be made available. Send me an email at b brown. Again, my name is Ben Brown. Bbrown@nclm.org. If you have a topic or an idea for this podcast, anything your town's working on or any unique challenges or developments worthy of broader discussion, something you'd like to hear more about or learn more about, please let me know. My name is Ben Brown. I work with the League of Municipalities with the communications team here. We are online at nclm.org. Working as one, advancing all. We will see you on the next one. Thanks.