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Recovery From Matthew Gradual, Not Complete, in Lenoir County

Chris Seward
/
News & Observer

Natural disasters loomed large in North Carolina in the second half of 2016. Wildfires scorched thousands of acres in the western part of the state. Here in eastern North Carolina Hurricane Matthew flooded thousands of homes and left some communities underwater for days.

Recovery is still underway and the price tag is steep.  

Chris Thomas has this update.

For the past two months – through private, state, and federal funding – hundreds-of-millions of dollars have been funneled through eastern North Carolina to assist in the recovery process following Hurricane Matthew.

In one of the areas hit hardest by the storm and the flooding that followed, Lenoir County, the recovery process has been gradual but life is still nowhere near “normal.” Flood waters were at their highest along U.S. 70 and U.S 258, impacting neighborhoods near the heart of Kinston. 

Flooding broke records set by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Of the 28 North Carolinians who lost their lives because of the storm, five came from Lenoir County.

Emergency Service Director Roger Dail says locals are still displaced.

“We have about 60 people who are in what we call ‘transitional sheltering.’ Which basically means they’re in motels, if they’re in Kinston or in other counties. We still have homes that are being repaired as we talk.”

He said 165 homes have ‘substantial damage’ – which means water flooded at least 13 to 14 feet. But he isn’t sure how many people, in total, have been displaced.

“Some of them are obviously staying with friends and family. There are some who have found property – other property, rental property – to move into. And some, obviously, are in motels and you know I’m sure there are some, I know there are some, who have been able to get some repair work done to their homes so they can back in there.”

According to a state assessment of the flooding and other recent natural disasters, nearly $1 billion in property damage is estimated and 68 percent of the damages aren’t expected to be covered by private or FEMA disaster relief efforts.

Additional help does seem to be on the way.

Congress recently appropriated $193 million to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for their Community Development Block Grant Program. These grants go to businesses and homes owners and are expected to supplement funds already provided through loans from the Small Business Administration, another federal agency.

“We’ve actually approved over 1,700 loans totaling over $64 million.”

Public Affairs Specialist for the SBA, Raymond Caldwell. The agency has 7 support offices in the region.

“When people think of SBA, they normally just think of businesses but actually the majority of our disaster loans are for home owners and home renters as well.”

The federal organization offers loans up to $200,000 for homeowners and up to $40,000 for renters. Interest on these loans depend on whether or not property owners can obtain credit elsewhere, though rates won’t exceed 8 percent.

“If a homeowner had physical damage to their house or even renters might have had damage to a vehicle that was damaged or destroyed or personal items that were damaged or destroyed, those are the types of loans we can do.”

The majority of those loans have gone to home owners and renters. According to the General Assembly, only 143 of the 641 businesses that have completed loan requests from SBA have been approved. More than 8,000 businesses have requested assistance.

Lawmakers believe this indicates large swaths of businesses impacted by the storm cannot handle debt incurred during the recovery process. Dail estimates about 15-20 firms in Lenoir County are still not ready for business.  

“All our motels, with the exception of two, are flooded…they’re still a couple months away from opening up. And you know there are still some mom and pop businesses that have not opened yet.”

This week, during the third special session of the year by the General Assembly, an additional $200 million dollars was allocated to assist natural disaster victims in the state. Most of that money is meant to be distributed through grants targeted at rebuilding infrastructure like small businesses.

Resources are finite, though, and as the evaluation process continues, that fact comes into clearer view, especially for local officials like Dail.  

“You know, we’re easily around $20 million mark now but it will go higher I’m sure, as DOT calculates their cost for roads, etc., etc.”

For individuals seeking assistance, there’s still time to register through FEMA, though the Jan. 9 deadline is fast approaching. Nick Burk, a mitigation specialist for the state, says the earlier a person begins the registration process, the better.

“It’s a rather complex system to navigate and in the field there have been disaster recovery centers under the Individual Assistance Program stood up in these local governments that do help individuals walk through their own individual recovery.”

Burk also suggests individual home owners start to consider mitigation strategies of their own.

“Under hazard mitigation, there’s the potential for buyouts in many communities, that’s acquisition or demolition. There’s the potential for elevations or house raising or potentially houses torn down and built to code under a very limited set of circumstances.”

The mitigation process has begun in Lenoir County even as recovery continues.

Emergency Services Director Dail.

“We can’t stop flooding, you know that’s an act of nature, nobody can stop it. But there are things we can do to mitigate the effects that that flood will have on us and some of that mitigation is to actually acquire and or elevate structures located in your flood plains and that’s what we’re going to be working on now.”

It won’t be easy to plan for the future. After all, this is the third major flood the region has had to endure in 20 years – the kind of event you’re only supposed to see every 500 years.

I’m Chris Thomas.