Brianna Kraemer
Carolina Journal
The House Select Committee on Helene Recovery met on Wednesday and revealed plans to continue its committee work in the 2025-2026 biennium.
The committee heard from several experts who outlined details on disaster recovery funding and estimates on Helene damage.
Kristen Walker, the state budget director at the Office of State Budget and Management highlighted funding requests at both the state and the federal level based on total damage in needs (DNA) assessment. The Office estimates that 74,000 homes have suffered FEMA verified damage and 275,000 households will apply for federal assistance. Almost all homes with FEMA verified flood damage do not have flood insurance.
“95% of these homes with FEMA verified flood damage do not have flood insurance, so the private sector will not be paying for that,” explained Walker.
On average, after a disaster, construction costs rise 15%-20% due to scarcity and demand on those scarce resources. Total damages are estimated to be at above $53.6 billion based on preliminary data and modeling.
The initial request to the General Assembly was $3.9 billion and $25.6 billion from the federal government. Approximately $6.3 billion in private funding, which means $17.8 billion will still go unfunded.
“So even if $3.9 billion sounds like a very large number to you – which it is – it is also still not going to come anywhere close to meeting, we don’t anticipate meeting everyone’s needs here,” Walker explained. “This is to get the money going and to get people started in a lot of programs that we hope the federal government will then fund behind us. No one is expecting anyone to fund that full – whatever the final number is – $50 some billion. That’s just not how recoveries work. Some of it is gone. It is gone forever.”
The state has already passed three major pieces of legislation related to Helene recovery totaling $1.13 billion, of which $904.15 million has been appropriated.
Before the storm, 55% of the impacted population was already experiencing a housing cost burden, either unable to find affordable housing or living in housing that was too high a percentage of their income. Noting that many people won’t apply for displacement assistance, Walker said that economists have also looked at how many folks might be permanently displaced and not returning to the region.
At the end of the roughly two-hour committee meeting, Rep Erin Pare, R-Wake, said it’s important for the committee to continue its work and made a motion to continue the committee’s work into the 2025 2026 biennium in the form of a formal letter to Rep. Hall signed by all committee members.
“We’re going to make the formal letter to Speaker Designee Hall,” said Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne. “I do not think that’s going to be a large request. I do think he’ll grant that request, but as we’re closing out this biennium moving to the next biennium it’s important for this committee to continue its work.”
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