North Carolinians still needing hotel rooms paid for by FEMA as part of recovery from Hurricane Helene will get a 21-day notice rather than seven when they become no longer eligible for the program.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, pressured by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., over the weekend, agreed “extenuating circumstances” exist in the western part of the state. Snow is on the ground in most of the upper elevations.
“We understand the great need survivors have at this time and this program will last as long as necessary,” said Brett Howard, the federal coordinating officer with FEMA. “That said, the length of eligibility for an individual survivor will be based on their individual circumstances. FEMA staff are working daily with survivors and on their cases to help them find permanent housing solutions.”
A release Monday said 740 of the 2,700 households checked in are no longer eligible to remain in the program. Nearly 13,000 survivor households have used the program since the storm hit and dissipated into the mountains on the last weekend of September.
Before President Donald Trump called out the Biden administration in his inauguration speech on Monday about FEMA response to North Carolina, Edwards was maintaining his consistency for his constituency. He announced the change in policy on Friday.
“I demanded that FEMA provide more notice so that no one else is taken by surprise and asked to leave with nowhere to go,” Edwards said in a release before the weekend. “FEMA’s agreement to provide 21 days’ notice is an overdue step to return humanity to the recovery process.”
He called the previous policy “inhumane to expect these folks to leave the only safe and warm shelter available with only a few days or a week’s notice.”
“The victims of Helene deserve better from the federal government,” he said.
Now in the 17th week of recovery, constituents of Edwards have gotten updates and he’s visited his home area – the southern-most boundary to Tennessee – multiple times to engage and find out the needs. U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., representing the northern boundary to Tennessee extending to Virginia, has also been heavily engaged even as the home of she and her husband was cut off from regular access for days.
On Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, Trump after taking the oath said in part, “We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while, at the same time, stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad.
“Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina – who have been treated so badly – and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago or, more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.”
Gov. Josh Stein requested of previous Administrator Deanne Criswell an extension of the Transitional Sheltering Assistance program for six months. His letter and a release indicated thought that it would end March 31. Howard responded on Sunday, saying the program was originally 180 days through a hotel check-out of March 27 and would be extended to May 26.
Tempers boiled heading toward the Jan. 11-12 weekend with snow on the way and a Jan. 10 deadline for households no longer eligible being forced out of hotels. A series of requests from multiple politicians and answers by FEMA resulted in that check-out date moving three times to Jan. 11, 14 and 25.
Helene killed 104 in North Carolina and 233 across seven states. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It dissipated over the mountains of the state and Tennessee, dropping more than 30 inches of rain in some places and over 24 consistently across more.
The estimated damage is more than $53 billion, according to a report from former Gov. Roy Cooper. Federal government help so far has been about $9 billion from a $110 billion package signed in December by President Joe Biden, plus FEMA assistance. State government help has included more than $1.1 billion in appropriation from three legislative packages, with more expected.
In its release, FEMA said, it “has provided more than $316 million in cash grants to Western North Carolina survivors, including more than $6.2 million in rental assistance. The U.S. Small Business Administration has also approved more than $213 million in low-interest loans to help survivors. Those loans are 0% interest for the first year.”
