Stein pushes $792M Helene plan as recovery lags
Gov. Josh Stein places a ceremonial block in the foundation of house under construction outside Bakersville.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
More than 18 months after Hurricane Helene caused roughly $60 billion in damage across Western North Carolina, only about 12% of federal recovery funding has arrived — as FEMA delays persist and questions about the agency’s future mount — leaving displaced families in campers, local governments with budget gaps and Gov. Josh Stein proposing another $792 million in state spending to keep a stalled federal recovery from slipping further behind.
On a warm, clear March 26 afternoon, Stein marked that reality not with a ribbon-cutting but with a ceremonial block, placed into the foundation of a home that is not yet complete.
Behind him sat a camper where a family has lived for months. Behind that, the unfinished skeleton of recovery.
“Take a look behind me. Are we finished? We are not finished,” Stein said. “We have more work to do.”
The home belongs to the Randall family, longtime residents of Mitchell County whose house was rendered uninhabitable when floodwaters surged through their property during the storm. Water rose to the floor, undermined the foundation and eventually left behind the kind of lingering damage that doesn’t always show up in photographs — mold.
For a time, they tried to stay. They couldn’t. Health concerns forced them out, and like many across the region, they retreated to a temporary solution that quickly became something closer to permanence — a camper parked on their own land, a reminder of what was lost and what had yet to return.
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The structure now rising in its place is being built by the Appalachian Service Project, a nonprofit that has become one of the most visible on-the-ground actors in Helene recovery, filling gaps left by both federal programs and the slow churn of state bureaucracy.
Stein used the moment to underscore both progress and its limits — a single home in a region where thousands still wait.
“My administration recently awarded ASP $2.2 million for this work. They’re moving quickly and making a real difference in the region,” Stein said. “They’ve completed eight homes already. There’s another 16 in progress. When they’re all said and done, they will have built or rebuilt 50 homes in Western North Carolina with the grant that we have provided.”
ASP has spent decades repairing homes across central Appalachia, but Helene has reshaped its mission, accelerating its shift toward disaster response and full home replacement.
Belle Gates, a marketing and communications specialist with the organization, described an operation that has scaled rapidly to meet the moment.
The organization serves a multi-state region stretching from eastern Tennessee through Western North Carolina and into Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, but Helene brought a renewed focus to North Carolina, where work only began in earnest within the past year. Additional projects are underway in Mitchell and Avery counties.
Gates said the organization relies on a mix of funding sources — state grants, private donations and partnerships with local recovery groups — to deliver what she described as “a gift of grace” to families who have nowhere else to turn.
“There is no cost to the homeowner,” she said. “Our goal is to just get them back home.”
The work is labor-intensive and often unpredictable, especially once construction moves beyond volunteer-driven framing into the realm of skilled trades, where timelines can stretch based on availability. But for families like the Randalls, the difference is immediate and profound — a path out of temporary living conditions that have stretched far longer than anyone expected.
While nonprofits have stepped in to address individual needs, local governments are grappling with a different kind of crisis — one measured not in mold or displacement but in budgets.
Mitchell County commissioners Jeff Harding and Lee Ellis described a financial picture that remains precarious, shaped by tens of millions of dollars in damage and a federal reimbursement process that has yet to catch up.
Harding estimated total damage in the county between $65 million and $80 million, a staggering figure for a county with an annual general fund budget of roughly $34 million. Notably, the county lost two wastewater treatment plants and is still waiting on a substantial sum to shore up county finances.
“I think the remaining balance is $17.5 million,” Harding said.
That gap represents not just delayed reimbursement but a structural challenge — one that forces counties to front the cost of recovery while continuing to provide basic services.
Ellis said the timing could not be worse, coming as counties prepare their annual budgets amid rising demands and uncertain revenues.
“We’re not looking forward to this year,” he said. “It’s going to be tough, and we’re going to be asked for more money from everyone, from education to smaller departments within our own county, and we’re already concerned that we don’t have enough to meet the needs of last year, from a tax revenue standpoint.”
Those pressures form the backdrop for Stein’s latest proposal — a $792 million package representing his third round of state funding aimed at Helene recovery.
The plan, outlined in detail in a 12-page document released by the governor’s office, attempts to address what Stein described as unmet needs across multiple sectors, from housing and infrastructure to economic recovery and disaster preparedness.
At its core, the proposal reflects a shift in emphasis — from immediate response to longer-term stabilization.
Roughly $80 million is directed toward economic recovery, including a $50 million revolving loan program designed to provide cash flow to local governments awaiting FEMA reimbursements, as well as $20 million in forgivable loans for small businesses still struggling to recover.
Another $10 million is earmarked for tourism promotion, an acknowledgment that the region’s economy remains heavily dependent on visitors who have yet to fully return.
Housing support includes $10 million for rental and utility assistance, targeting families displaced by the storm who continue to face financial strain.
Infrastructure accounts for a significant portion of the proposal, with more than $230 million allocated to projects ranging from private road and bridge repairs to flood mitigation, dam safety and wastewater system restoration. Among the largest single line items is $100 million for private roads and bridges, reflecting both the scale of damage and the limited availability of federal funding for those projects.
Additional funding would support debris removal, emergency communication systems and flood monitoring networks like FIMAN , all aimed at improving resilience ahead of future disasters.
The proposal also includes funding for wildfire mitigation, recognizing the increased risk posed by storm debris, as well as investments in state parks and forests damaged by the hurricane.
Perhaps most significant is the $450 million set aside for federal match requirements and cash flow support, a recognition that accessing federal funds often requires upfront state investment but can bring back many times the state’s outlay.
“If they can get it passed, it will be an immediate influx of revenue to the folks that desperately need it right now,” Ellis said. “I think that each topic that [Stein] hit on during his presentation is still a need in our county — infrastructure, housing, tourism. With each one of them, we’re still suffering, especially with the Blue Ridge Parkway closed.”
Even so, Stein’s proposal does not attempt to replace federal funding so much as compensate for its delays — a distinction that underscores the broader tension at the heart of the recovery effort.
That tension came into sharper focus during a question about the FEMA Review Council, a federal body tasked with evaluating the agency’s performance and recommending reforms.
Nearly 15 months after its creation by President Donald Trump, the council has blown through deadlines, has seen its original one-year charter extended twice and has yet to release a final report.
A leaked draft of the final report, which was supposed to be approved in a Dec. 11, 2025 meeting that was subsequently canceled, has raised concerns about shifting more responsibility onto states. Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley is the only North Carolina representative on the council.
“Basically, I want to fix FEMA, not eliminate FEMA,” Stein said, drawing parallels between his views and those of new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “To get rid of the federal agency that exists to support states recovering from natural disaster would be a man-made disaster on top of a natural disaster.”
Stein said he’d invited Mullin to visit Western North Carolina and had already sent him a letter urging him to expedite hazard mitigation grant funding. Of roughly 600 homeowners seeking a buyout, Stein said, only a few dozen have been approved.
Such delays are among the most pressing issues, Stein said, and the implications are not theoretical. They are visible in places like Mitchell County, where infrastructure remains damaged, tourism has yet to fully rebound and local officials are bracing for difficult budget decisions. They are visible in the camper behind Stein, where a family has spent months waiting for a home. They are visible in the numbers — billions in damage, millions in state funding and a federal response that has yet to meet the scale of the need.
For Stein, the message was clear.
“Western North Carolinians have been working their tails off. We cannot leave them hanging,” Stein said. “We cannot stop now. We have to match their grit, we have to match their determination, we have to match their urgency, because the recovery is not over.”
Whether the General Assembly will approve the full $792 million request remains uncertain, but the pressure to act is unlikely to ease.
Recovery, as Stein noted, is not a moment but a process — one that stretches far beyond the headlines and into the daily lives of those still rebuilding.
On a ruddy red hillside in Mitchell County, where flakes of mica sparkle in the sun like fool’s gold, that process is measured one block at a time. And for now, it remains far from finished.
