By Patrik Jonsson

Copyright csmonitor

When this Blue Ridge mountain town in North Carolina gathers on Saturday morning to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the devastating floods caused by Hurricane Helene, the agenda calls for survivors to give witness, for voices to rise to “America the Beautiful,” and for a moment of silence.

The ceremony “is a way for us to try to wrap this up,” says Old Fort Mayor Pam Snypes.

But a year after remnants of Helene spilled historic torrents of rain down these mountains, Mayor Snypes admits that while progress has been made, there’s still so much left to do. Recovery efforts have not, in fact, been wrapped up – at all.

The mounds of debris have been cleared, businesses have reopened, and with help from Federal Emergency Management Agency funding and private donations, this town is pulling itself together in time for tourist season this year.

Still, like crops battered to the ground by heavy rain, Old Fort — like dozens of other communities throughout the western Carolina mountains — still needs fair weather to thrive, if not just survive. Many Old Fort residents remain in temporary housing, and the town is still awaiting millions of dollars in federal reimbursements for emergency expenditures needed to fix its streets, water systems, and schools – nearly 20 projects in all.

In short, the town has become a window on the challenges of a major recovery effort, as well as on how U.S. aid for disaster-struck communities – including the politicization of funding – impacts survivors.

“I don’t blame politics or the president, but the processes are repetitive, and the money is taking too long,” she says. “They all mean well, but I honestly don’t care what your words are. Back it up, and put it into action.”

Last week, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, tried to do that. He traveled to Washington to re-up a request for $13 billion – what he calls the federal government’s “fair share.” To date, Washington has approved less than 10% of the request, with much of that money still awaiting disbursement.

Structural reforms, mass firings at FEMA, and budgetary chess moves by the Trump administration have meanwhile led to growing complaints from both Republicans and Democrats – including local and federal representatives – about delays and confusion that are complicating the state’s recovery.

“The fundamental question remains: What happens to the overall community [being thought of] as a collective good?” says Robert Griffin, founding dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany.

“Americans have said, ‘We believe that even a small town in North Carolina deserves to be rebuilt so that people can live and grow in safety.’ Frankly, a lot of what I’m hearing now runs contrary to that,” Mr. Griffin adds.

Delays, confusion, and “taking too long”

Helene struck a month before the 2024 election and became a flashpoint for candidates and political leaders who debated the federal government’s disaster-response efforts. President Trump and his campaign slammed the Biden administration, incorrectly saying that it was diverting FEMA funds to migrant housing.

At the time, some local Republicans, despite their support for Mr. Trump’s candidacy, pushed back on several online allegations – including the rumor that FEMA was only paying out $750 per claim. Many residents, they noted, were, in fact, receiving the maximum of $42,000 from the government to rebuild.

President Trump says the government’s promises are now being met through a faster, leaner, better FEMA. Trump administration officials point to a shorter timeframe for individual assistance payouts, as well as accolades from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott regarding Washington’s response to the recent floods in Texas. And the Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, continues to repeat the Trump administration’s public relations mantra that Secretary Kristi Noem is “rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and is reprioritizing appropriated dollars.”

Last week, the administration released $44 million on top of $1.3 billion already sent to North Carolina, including $1.4 million obligated for a new maintenance shed in Old Fort. The Department of Homeland Security said in a release that it is “ensuring that dollars are delivered to communities at record speed.”

But the reality on the ground, according to Mayor Snypes and others, is that funding has often been too little, too late.

As of September, North Carolina has been promised over $2 billion in FEMA funding for Hurricane Helene repairs, making it one of a handful of states, including Florida, Texas, and Louisiana, to receive sizable grants from an administration trying to shift disaster recovery to the states.

But delays have become endemic, complicating the recovery and creating new uncertainties about whether money already spent will be reimbursed.

Former FEMA head Cameron Hamilton, appointed by Mr. Trump and then ousted for contradicting the administration’s vow to eliminate FEMA, posted on social media that new budgetary checkoffs by Ms. Noem have created “entirely new forms of bureaucracy.”

Some delays are due to problems with congressional funding. FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) has become perennially underfunded in recent years, as costs and the frequency of disasters have increased.

That means that the Trump administration is “stretching” existing FEMA funding streams “to reduce the federal role in disaster recovery,” according to a Sept. 19 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which provides independent analysis of global problems.

The upshot is a series of frustrating delays like the ones seen here in Old Fort. “It’s a short-term triage strategy that risks long-term consequences,” write Carnegie’s Jennifer DeCesaro and Sarah Labowitz, in their report, “The Trump Administration Is Quietly Curbing the Flow of Disaster Funding.’’

That reality is apparent throughout the Appalachian Mountains, where many towns are struggling to recover and are still waiting for help. A combination of state and federal funds, plus billions in insurance payouts, should cover about a quarter of the estimated $60 billion in damages from the storm. But about $44 billion of the disaster costs remains unfunded, according to a report released this week by the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina.

The state’s latest request for $13 billion in additional federal funding won’t cover the outstanding expenses. But North Carolina is holding out hope for help. Congress ultimately appropriated approximately $120 billion for rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

Earlier this week, Yancey County Manager Lynn Austin told lawmakers in Raleigh that officials have nearly exhausted the county’s entire budget, just on Hurricane Helene debris removal. In the past, FEMA would reimburse from 90% to 100% of those removal costs. But so far, the county hasn’t seen a cent.

“The feds have been, obviously, slower than anyone anticipated,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, at the legislative hearing on funding requests to Congress.

“Our biggest obstacle is a lack of clarity and consistent guidance from FEMA,” Dennis Aldridge, the Avery County Commissioner, told lawmakers.

FEMA frustrations, and unlikely allies

Also present at that hearing was Jonathan Krebs, the region’s recovery advisor, who stated that the slowdowns at FEMA are causing frustration, but that officials fear retribution from the Trump administration if they were to complain. “It comes with a lot of complexity,” Mr. Krebs told lawmakers.

Such fears are not unfounded. Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, who has no emergency management experience, has privately joked about Republican-led states getting FEMA aid faster than those led by Democrats, according to the Washington Post.

“The Trump administration has been very transactional: ‘What will you do for me if I do this for you?’” says Christopher Cooper, who studies North Carolina politics at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. “But that’s not the way disaster relief works.”

So, North Carolinians, whose early days are filled with tales of survival, a drive for self-governance, and improvisation, culminating in the first successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, have begun to improvise. And compromise.

Sen. Ted Budd, a MAGA-endorsed Republican, leaned on the administration earlier this month, holding up multiple appointments within the Department of Homeland Security until money was released.

It was a risky gambit. But it worked.

At the same time, Governor Stein, a Democrat, has continued to show strong polling numbers in western North Carolina, despite the region’s conservative leanings, mainly due to his reputation as a tough yet effective moderate.

In short, the common-good goal of helping the state’s storm-struck areas appears to have pushed partisan politics to the sidelines, at least when it comes to disaster recovery matters.

“We see Governor Stein and Senator Budd as unlikely allies,” says Professor Cooper, co-editor of “The New Politics of North Carolina,’’ a book of political essays. “I doubt we’ll catch them together at a Tar Heels game. But they have managed to work together.”

And for all the foot-dragging and financial problems, the progress these western North Carolina communities have made since Helene has been meaningful, and, at times, awe-inspiring.

After a nearly 20-mile-long network of mountain bike trails above Old Fort was rendered unusable by downed trees, those trails are now mostly cleared. Much of the region is now open for seasonal, leaf-peeping tourists. Hundreds of bridges still need repair, but most state and county roads are open.

“We’re focused on rebuilding, not only so that we can survive, but grow,” says Mayor Snypes. “Because of the storm, everything has shifted.”

What matters

Up the hill from Old Fort’s downtown, lifelong resident Sonya Brendle recalls the chaos of the floods that wrecked nearly 50 homes around her. Now, she marvels at a town that is healing. Before the floods, she says, Old Fort residents had crossed swords over whether to allow microbreweries in a dry county. Now, thanks to the recovery effort, the town has come together again.

“We helped one another,” she says. “It was a close-knit town again. Politics didn’t matter.”

That spirit underscores the broader American bet that communities struck by disaster can recover by working together, holding public officials accountable, and trusting Washington to deliver on the U.S. Declaration of Independence’s goal of being “a more perfect union.’’

“People do a lot of complaining, and I agree with a lot of the complaints. But can we imagine what the region would look like now if there were no disaster relief from the government?” says Professor Cooper in Cullowhee. “In a way, it’s been the best case I’ve ever seen for why government still matters.”