Washington Post: “Storm-battered counties across this region are still waiting for the federal government to make good on its promises to pay back millions upon millions of dollars…”

New reporting from the Washington Post highlights how western North Carolinians are struggling to get by as they wait for DC insider Michael Whatley to deliver federal Helene relief as “recovery czar.” 

While Whatley fails WNC communities, states that were less impacted by Helene have received more federal relief than North Carolina has.

Read More:

Washington Post: N.C. counties that busted budgets after Helene still waiting for FEMA to pay them back

Brady Dennis, Brianna Sacks, and Kevin Crowe | October 21, 2025

• More than a year after Helene, Yancey and other storm-battered counties across this region are still waiting for the federal government to make good on its promises to pay back millions upon millions of dollars that local officials have spent or allocated for recovery. The process has been agonizingly slow and unusually complicated, Austin and officials from other counties say. That delay has upended local budgets and hindered reconstruction.
• And while comparisons can be tricky, North Carolina officials don’t know how to reconcile that their state has received less than some of its neighbors in certain types of FEMA aid after Helene, even though the storm wrecked hundreds of roads and bridges in the Tar Heel State, crippled water systems and damaged or destroyed more than 73,000 homes.
• Not getting reimbursed has left Yancey County and other storm-battered communities in a bind.
• FEMA has obligated $132 million for Helene debris removal in North Carolina, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the agency as of Oct. 20. It has obligated five times that amount for Georgia, or $690 million, as well as $192 million for Florida and $159 million for Tennessee.
• Georgia, which sustained significant damage, but did not have towns nearly swept away like North Carolina did, is so far slated to get more money in public assistance funds for debris removal, emergency response costs and infrastructure repairs.
• A FEMA employee from Region 4, which encompasses North Carolina, confirmed that there have been unusual delays in the reimbursements. 
• The North Carolina Association of County Commissions said in a statement to The Post that the FEMA delays have caused “serious financial strain” and left Helene-ravaged counties “uniquely vulnerable.”
• The county has held back some debris-removal payments to contractors so it doesn’t completely run out of money. And there’s still a lot more work to do: many homes remain uninhabitable or destroyed, others still don’t have internet access, and damage to the many winding roads totaled more than $1 billion.

###