Washington Post: “Certainly for those storm victims still awaiting a buyout, it has been a season of silence [from FEMA] and stress.”

Recent reporting from the Washington Post is spotlighting yet another failure of Hurricane Helene “recovery czar” Michael Whatley – over 800 Western North Carolinians are feeling a “heavy toll” as they wait for answers from FEMA after applying for its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program as long as more than 13 months ago.

Western North Carolinians and state officials have received “little information” and “little guidance” from FEMA on why no buyout applications have been approved. 

This piles on to the “palpable frustration in western North Carolina” since Whatley was tapped to “lead the team” and be “very much in charge” of federal Helene recovery efforts nearly a year ago. In that time, only 11 percent of needs in Western North Carolina have been met in federal support.

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Washington Post: Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.

Brady Dennis | December 30, 2025

• In November 2024, Clark was among the first storm victims in her county to apply for a voluntary program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would enable the government to buy out her property.

• Meanwhile, more than 13 months after applying for a buyout, Clark has heard almost nothing definitive.

• More than 800 storm victims around Helene-battered western North Carolina have applied under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. State officials vetted applications and began sending them up the chain to FEMA as far back as February. As of Dec. 15, they had sent nearly 600 buyout requests to Washington, with more likely to follow.

• So far, they say, not a single approval has come through.

• The situation is just one element of the sprawling and ongoing recovery, and of the palpable frustration in western North Carolina — especially given promises by President Donald Trump during a visit early this year, where he vowed to “slash through every bureaucratic barrier” and insisted that “every single inch of every property will be fully rebuilt, greater and more beautiful than it was before.”

• “The uncertainty has taken a heavy toll — financially, emotionally, and on my family’s sense of security,” she wrote to Stein in one August letter. “It is heartbreaking to think that, after surviving a disaster, we may lose everything because of timelines and red tape that are beyond our control.”

• “There’s so little information,” she said. “Nobody really has any answers. We are just sitting here, waiting.”

• The reality is that local governments continue to wait for large sums in federal reimbursements for debris cleanup and other projects. Roads still need repair. Renters and homeowners remain displaced. Certainly for those storm victims still awaiting a buyout, it has been a season of silence and stress.

• Don Campbell, chief of staff to North Carolina’s emergency manager, recently told members of a state task force on Helene recovery that overall, officials had been given little guidance from FEMA on why no buyouts had been approved since Helene.

• “The folks who are seeking buyouts, in a lot of cases, have been displaced from their homes. They are in some cases paying mortgages on damaged or destroyed homes,” Calabria said. “And so, these delays are very acutely felt by so many of these families.”

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